The Story of Straetic Meelae
by Bobshadow
Summary: During the end of the Clone Wars, four republic defense generals will go through Order 66 and turn to the dark side. Read and watch as the transformation will change their lives forever! From general Straetic Meelae's point of view! Review and Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

It is a time of Civil War. A time of destruction, corruption, and utter chaos. Through the entire galaxy, the Republic has fought to save the lives of every being that inhabits it. The Separatists have only thought about destruction and galactic domination. I am one of the few people who stand in their way. My name is Straetic Meelae, and this is my story.

I serve as a high clone general for the Republic. Most of my work consists of orders in the outer rim. The only occasion I'm actually sent into battle, is when I'm in a building under attack. It hasn't happened often, but I feel as if it happens all the time. My fellow generals and I are working on plans to set the Separatists light years away from our planets. We are in charge of the defense of the sector known as the "Unknown Regions". Specifically, I am assigned to the Sarvchi system, and I am the preliminary defense, currently on board a shipyard named "The Green Dragon". I was assigned a mission here to see how production was running on Republic starships.

"General Kesyar. I have a bad feeling about this place." I said to my counterpart as we approached the gates of the shipyard.

"What are you talking about? You always sense something wrong with our shipyards and military bases. If you're going to sense so much, why don't you go become a Jedi?" He said in a joking tone. He laughed a little afterward.

General Kesyar was another general in charge of the defenses of the Unknown Regions sector. Chancellor Palpatine himself assigned us the mission of checking these shipyards out. But Kesyar seems to always be laid back with high security missions. I don't know how he does it, but his background reports claim he's never been in a real battle. He's always given me confidence, that's for sure.

"Seriously….why would the chancellor himself ask us to go on such a small mission as checking production. Much less why he would send professionals like US?"

"Meelae, that's always been your problem. You automatically assume the worst scenario. What if it's just minor coincidence?"

"Coincidence, or a trap, keep on your toes general." I told him ominously.

We finally got inside of The Green Dragon. Just as I thought, all production had completely stopped. I stood there with a blaster in my back pocket, knowing it was definitely a trap. But was the chancellor behind it all? Or was Kesyar right about a coincidence?

"Where are all of the troops on the lines!?" Kesyar gasped in total disbelief.

"Keep on your toes general. We must make our way to the central building of the facility and find out who's in charge."

Kesyar followed me easier than usual, because he had no idea what to do in an actual crisis situation. Generals were never supposed to use combat, much less, Kesyar had never dreamed of being in a situation where anything went wrong.

My pocket was beeping. It was my transmitter. I was getting a call. I reached in my pocket and turned on the projection. The call was coming from no other than the chancellor himself.

"Chancellor Palpatine, sir." I said.

"I'm afraid I have bad news for you general. We were just notified that all communications in the shipyard you're going to has totally shut down. Please don't go to the shipyard and we'll handle the situation."

"We've already entered the facility, sir. The gates automatically lock when shut. We need to open the lock from the central building to get back out." I told him.

"Oh, that's not good. Well please be careful with your mission you two. I wouldn't want you to get killed." He said in his frail voice.

"You have nothing to worry about sir. We will proceed with extreme caution." I assured him.

He ended the transmition there. I put the device back my pocket.

"As if my visions weren't making me worried enough." I said.

We walked all the way to the central building of the facility. Our access cards easily let us in, like no ordinary trip. We just so easily walked through the vacant hallways. There was not a sign of life at all through the building.

"I'm starting to have second thoughts as well, General." said Kesyar, in a scared tone.

"Don't worry. Clone Troopers are being sent here to investigate as we speak." I told him as we approached the command center room. "We may not even see a soul in this entire building."

I opened the door only to hear guns aimed and ready to fire. Separatist Battle Droids filled the room, and to be led by none other than my personal worst rival, Ryluh Garsta.

Garsta was a bounty hunter who works for a high Separatist leader in charge of Republic assault in this sector. Garsta has destroyed shipyards and military bases, always willing to take the lives of the Republic. He killed one of us generals, General Tysuu, in an accident a year ago. That's why we needed a new defense general, via General Kesyar.

I pulled my pistol I had in my back pocket out and aimed it at Garsta. He quickly shot at my hand and knocked the gun away.

"You tyrant! The Republic's going to take you down so you can't kill any of us again!" I screamed as I held my right hand in pain.

"Republic scum. You don't have a choice. We've come in and cleared you shipyard completely out. Now that you've come to us, we can just so easily kill you. But I want to get as much fun out of this as you, so I'm holding you hostage to see how much the Republic will pay to have your skins alive." He said with his gun still smoking from the first shot.

That was that. Droids had taken us to a corner in the room to sit quietly until he contacted the Republic. But right as he was ready to make the call, clone troopers burst in from the roof and doors to save us.

"General! Get down!" one of the troops yelled.

Me and Kesyar both dove for the ground. The clone troopers started blasting away, mowing through the droids like electricity through water. Palpatine sent in for A LOT of reinforcements if you ask me, but they only seemed like a lot. They work on frontline assignments in the Coruscant sector, so these guys were well trained.

Garsta was the only one left. The clone troopers totally surrounded him. He looked around with his hands in the air, and he pushed a button on his wrist. His jet pack activated and shot him up through the roof. He was flying away in retreat. My anger for his ruthlessness was at its worst.

"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" I screamed at them. I felt completely angered. I'm never angry, if at all mad. The only reason I would be mad, was at myself because I couldn't do my job to its full extent, whatever the reason maybe.

"You heard him men! Get back to the gunship and track him down! You two! Help the Generals get back out! MOVE!" the clone commander yelled as they all ran out of the room to go hunt down Garsta.

"Are you alright general?" one clone asked.

"Yes…we're fine." Kesyar said as he stood up and brushed himself off. "We need to open the locks on the doors of the main gate to get back to our ship."

"Yes sir." One clone said as he left the room. He told us to go ahead and meet back at the ship. He would activate the locks and meet up with us before takeoff.

Before we left, I saw something. It was a small metal device. I got a closer look, and found out what it was. It was definitely a Jedi lightsaber. I didn't know what to do. Considering my blaster was shot, I did need a new weapon. And if the generals want to call me a Jedi again I could always take it and apply. Like that would happen. I took the thing anyway and stuck it in my back pocket without anyone to see.

We all headed back to the ship in a rushed hurry. We heard the sounds of explosions as they shook the building. When we got down to the first floor, and finally out of the building, we came out just in time to see the republic gunship of troops to go after Garsta crash into the central building. I knew Garsta had got away at that point. We looked back at the gate and the lock was turned off. The clone troop inside definitely died in there. At least the lock was down and we didn't have to call for yet another ship. We opened the gate and got inside the ship. We took off and headed back to New Defense HQ; our state of the art defense base headquarters.

Chancellor Palpatine called us again and we informed him on the entire situation. He re-assigned the only clone trooper survivor to New Defense HQ. He said he was honored to be re-assigned, and that was the end of the transmition. But I could sense his thoughts. He was in a bad mood. I decided to talk to him.

"What's wrong troop?" I asked him.

"Nothing, sir. There's nothing wrong at all." He replied.

"I sense your anger, your sadness, and your confusion. Explain to me why." I replied in a confident but mysterious voice.

"Wow….that's a very impressive trick sir. To tell the truth, I…..I don't know why I would be re-assigned. I'm a top-notch clone trooper in charge of frontline assignments in the center of all the Republic action, and I'm being placed for defense in the outer rim…" he said in a frustrated voice.

"There's a place for everyone. Don't worry. You'll find we do get as much action as you do in the Coruscant sector." I said.

"Yes, sir." He simply replied. He still sounded discouraged. But what else was I to do. The Republic wouldn't waste all the time and fuel for one clone trooper. He was most likely going to stay and be one of us….

Our ship finally reached New Defense HQ. The clone trooper couldn't stop staring at it. I sensed his feelings. He felt shocked and interested. Not like before when he was totally depressed and felt useless.

"More than you expected trooper?" I said in a joking tone.

"Yes sir. It's colossal for an outer rim defense….very impressive General." He said. He was in a good mood at this point.

The ship docked and we showed the troop where to go. He left us with best regards and a positive attitude. I'm going to hate to see someone like Garsta kill him.

"You sure do the job right plus more, master Jedi." Kesyar finally said after the clone left.

That's when I remembered the lightsaber I picked up. It was still in my back pocket. I was going to see what the other generals were doing, then go to my private quarters and look at it a bit more.

We arrived in the general's discussion room. General Raech was there, looking at the map of the sector and reading an article on the Green Dragon.

"Ah, there you two are. I heard Garsta gave you some trouble." Raech said.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." Kesyar said, sitting back in his chair like he was the hero who saved us all.

"Well there's a first Kesyar." Raech said. General Raech was in charge of the militia of troopers we had inside New Defense HQ. He has been in ten times the battles I've been, and used to be a frontline commander in the Corellian sector. His left eye had been shot, causing it to go blind, and the corpse from it so bad, he wore an eye patch. He takes all his work like it was still Corellian assault of Separatists, but to tell the truth, our job was much less important.

"Where's General Obisma?" Kesyar asked. "We need to inform him on the situation."

"I already informed him, Kesyar," replied Raech. "He was a bit worried about you two from the start."

General Obisma was another story. Obisma was in charge of all the transportation and mechanics onboard the New Defense HQ. He was always fixing ships or developing new designs to send to the Senate for actual development. The closest he ever got was a ship that looked like our ARC-170s, accept without the extra wings, cockpits, and it didn't have any blasters at all. He still always worked at his mechanics and loved his job. Although once or twice, here or there, he would forget a major part in the ships; usually ending up in 1-5 casualties each. One time he forgot the engine heat stabilizers on a republic gunship, and within a minute of testing, the ship exploded and caused 4 test pilots to die. He was still hard working, and a very intelligent general.

"If everything is alright on deck, I'm going back to my quarters." I said. Nobody wondered why I left, so I was on my way to my quarters. I still had the lightsaber in my back pocket, un-noticed by anybody else aboard. I opened my door and locked it so nobody but my class, generals, could get in. I was simply hoping none of them would try and follow me here.

I pulled the saber out of my back pocket. It was a little heavy, and had a strange pattern on it. It had a brown cloth that extended from the emitter half way to the floor. My guess was about two and a half feet. I finally examined the whole thing and got the courage to turn it on. I pressed down the button and a long blade of green light shot out the top. It was making a humming noise, as all lightsabers do, and it felt the same weight as before, considering light doesn't weigh anything. I was simply waving it around in the air, when Kesyar barged in the room. He saw me with the lightsaber and stood in disbelief.

"So you ARE a Jedi! You even have a Jedi's lightsa-!" I grabbed him and threw him in my room so no one would hear him. I turned off the lightsaber and shushed Kesyar.

"SH! I'm NOT a Jedi for the last time! I found this lightsaber when we were leaving the Green Dragon. I found it in the central building." I explained.

"Ah. I wondered what that was that you picked up." He said with a smile. "So why'd you take it. Do you ACTUALLY want to be a Jedi?"

I sat there in silence for a moment. I did want to be a Jedi, but I would never pass exams. All I can do is sense feelings.

"No." I finally told him. "The Chancellor would never let me become a Jedi. I'm not going to be anything more than a Sarvchi defense general with you guys."

Now Kesyar was being silent. Usually when I told one of the generals that they'd say: 'That's right Meelae.' Or 'NOW you're getting it.' But this time Kesyar sat there for a while.

"I'm sorry if me and the other generals offend you when we say you'll be a Jedi…we're just joking around. You know that right?" he finally said.

I didn't bother sensing his thoughts. It was when we talked about the Jedi was when I used my force the least. Before I could answer, someone knocked on my door. I opened it, and there was a simple clone solider was standing there.

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but general Raech sent me here to inform you that general Obisma is back from his test flight." He reported.

"Good." I said. "We're going to go to the front deck. You can go back to business trooper."

"Yes sir." He said and walked away.

I didn't care if Kesyar followed me or not, I was leaving for the front deck. He did follow me though, considering he had to get there at some point. We both didn't say a word arriving to the front deck. Obisma was there, with some oil smudges he was wiping from his face.

"General Obisma. I see your test flight was a success. You made it back alive." I said.

"General Meelae. No, it wasn't. My final prototype ship of the SSF-420 design, crashed into an asteroid. I forgot a detail or two in the course settings of the test flight." He said.

"How many did we loose in that one?" I asked.

"Only three." He said. "I don't want to break my 'wonderful record' of five anytime soon."

"Now then," said Raech. "If we're all ready, I have an announcement specifically for the generals of the Sarvchi system defense from Chancellor Palpatine."

The room froze. Clone troopers working at computers turned around to hear what the Chancellor wanted to specifically tell New Defense HQ. Only us generals had straight faces on, as if Palpatine himself were in the room.

"The Chancellor has asked us a favor," Raech began. "He says he is surprised at our efforts, and he wants us to become…" he looked closer at the order while the room sat on the edge of its seat. "He wants the generals of New Defense HQ to become the general defense of the Coruscant system and protect the Jedi Temple in specific."

The room totally lost control. Everyone was talking in gasps and disbelief. I could hear some of what some said. 'OUR generals!?' And 'Chancellor Palpatine choosing THEM to defend him!?' Even we lost our straight faces. We were being re-assigned to the most important defense general position there was in the galaxy.


	2. Chapter 2: Order 66

I stood in shock. I had no idea what to expect. Chancellor Palpatine has given us a totally new sector to move to! After all the work we had done in the Unknown Regions!

"What are you talking about!? Explain!" I yelled in high disbelief.

"See," Raech began. "Chancellor Palpatine has given us a temporary mission in the Coruscant sector as his personal defense at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. After a short time period, I'm sure we're moving back here."

"US!? HE WANTS US TO PROTECT THE MOST POWERFULL MAN IN THE ENTIRE REPUBLIC!?"

"Calm down General. He said he just wants to check up on our protection developments and our guarding procedures from our men." Raech said as if nothing important were going on.

I still couldn't believe it! This is the dream on generals, even admirals! To protect the man that will one day save the galaxy and restore order to all of its inhabitants. The Chancellor himself wants us to protect him. Even if it's just to see how we're doing with protection purposes, I still feel we're doing a great thing for the galaxy.

"Have any others gone through with this task?" Kesyar had to ask.

"Yes," Raech replied. "Several Defense generals from other sectors have been asked by Palpatine to show how they can protect. He figures if they can protect the main Republic's mind, they can easily protect one of its branches."

He was referring to the planets. If we could protect the Chancellor from foreign invaders and other terrorists, we could just so easily protect a sector, much less a system.

Then it happened. A vision. I had another strange vision. Palpatine…standing before several dead bodies….looked like Jedi…and laughing….I had a huge headache through that.

"What's wrong Meelae?" Kesyar asked.

"I sense….this test we're going to do….the Jedi…I feel as if there is a huge plot from the Jedi. I saw Jedi…dead Jedi…and the Chancellor was laughing….like he wanted them dead…" I explained.

"Based on how you're visions usually are," Raech said. "Can we trust any Jedi in seeing the Chancellor?"

"That's part of our JOB, Raech." Said Kesyar as if he knew everything. Kesyar's a rookie who joined almost a year ago. He acts like since he came out of the academy last, he knows all the rules and regulations to our job. But the REAL thing he should be getting his knowledge from is experience at the real thing. Considering he hasn't been in a battle, he doesn't plan well for situations of war. That's why he was assigned defense in the outer rim and not given a warship or a frontline assignment in his life.

"He's saying what if the Jedi can get past us and kill the Chancellor. If I were Chancellor and the Jedi attacked me, I'd want them dead too." I told Kesyar and glared at him.

It took him a minute or so, but Kesyar was understanding the situation better and better. I could see him solving the problems as if he were still in the academy. He needs to learn that the academy isn't the same as the real deal.

"Well, we can take a precaution on the Jedi and Chancellor Palpatine. If a Jedi happens to want to see the Chancellor, we'll check up on Mr. Fortune Cookie here and see if it's a Jedi from his vision." Raech said and looked at me as if I should pay attention.

I should have. My mind was still frazzled from the vision I just had. I couldn't tell some things Raech was saying. Kesyar was coming out clear, but Raech's words sort of lost me. I still knew what we had to do. Protect the Chancellor and watch the actions of Jedi. Also to see if I recognize any of them from my visions.

"General." Obisma said upon walking in the room. "I have the transport ship ready for flight to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. We can leave when you're ready."

"We're leaving now." Raech said.

"What?" I quickly remarked. "Why would we be leaving first opportunity we got?"

"We have assessed the situation from our personal experience and thought. There's no point in sitting and waiting." Raech told me.

I knew he was right. It's not that I was afraid of us not protecting the Chancellor, but the reign of the Jedi as our ultimate protectors coming to an end.

We all got to the transport and explained to Obisma everything we discussed. It gave Kesyar another chance to go over everything as well. I saw him sitting there questioned at parts of our story and totally in touch with others. He asked a few questions to get back on track with the rest of us.

It took us several hours to finally get to the Coruscant sector. We had finally arrived at the actual planet of Coruscant. But as soon as we entered the atmosphere, the hologram projector turned on and a dark, hooded man appeared. His upper face was hidden by his hood, and the lower half looked like an old man's face. He had black robes that he wore, and was very mysterious. He looked like a Sith lord and sounded like Chancellor Palpatine. It was.

"IS THAT THE CHANCELLOR!?" Kesyar screamed. He was more confused and scared than when we were on the Green Dragon. He had practically fallen out of his chair in shock.

"To all clone troopers of the Republic," began Palpatine. "Execute Order 66." And the transmition was over. The hologram faded away, and we were just about to be at the Jedi temple.

"I know exactly what's going on…" Raech said. "Meelae…your vision was right. The fall of the Jedi is tonight….and we're the ones causing it."

But before he could say another word, Kesyar screamed

"WHAT'S GOING ON!? WHY IS CHANCELLOR PALPATINE DRESSED LIKE A SITH!? WHAT'S ORDER 66!?"

"To answer your questions in order," Raech began. "First; we're about to kill all of the Jedi in the Jedi temple, and all who help them. Second; 'Chancellor Palpatine' is actually the Sith lord behind all of the attacks we've faced; the droids, the Separatists, terrorists, and so on. Lastly; Order 66 is an order specifically made for the clones, unknown, even by the Jedi. It was made by Palpatine to tell the clones to destroy all of the Jedi."

At that point, everyone in the room was scared. Nobody knew what to do. I thought of what to say, but before I could, we had landed at the Jedi temple.

"I guess now wouldn't be the best time to whip that lightsaber of yours out General." Kesyar whispered to me.

For once, I would consider what Kesyar said as a good move. I kept the lightsaber in my back pocket and told myself to keep it there until the clones knew I wasn't a Jedi in disguise or anything.

We got out of the ship and four clone troopers walked up to escort us.

"General. We're here to inform you on the situation." On of them said.

"Go on." Obisma said.

"We are in charge of killing all the Jedi in the south tower of the temple. Unfortunately, we have no idea how we could kill the masters. They've been trained in blaster defense. They could slice through all of us instantly. Luckily, we could still try for a sneak attack. All communication systems in the south tower were to be repaired this morning and never did, so they won't know we're coming." The same clone said.

"So does anybody have anything better that blasters?" one clone asked.

"Well I" and I shut myself up. I almost told them I had a lightsaber. All the clones we're faced toward me. What was I supposed to say to get myself out of this now?

"I did not give you permission to ask such a question trooper!" I said in a stern voice.

"I'm sorry sir." He said. I kind of felt bad, considering I didn't mind him speaking up.

"Permission to ask the same question, General?" a different clone asked.

Before I could say 'denied', Raech spoke up and said

"Granted."

"Thank you General. Do we have anything better than blasters against these Jedi?" he asked.

"I don't believe we brought anything better." Obisma responded.

"So how do you know that we're not Jedi in disguise ourselves?" I asked. I should've just shut up then.

"…Permission for Clone DNA testing, General?" one clone finally asked.

"Granted." I said.

The clone troopers took DNA samples from me and the other Generals to confirm we were the real deal.

"All clear, sir." The trooper said.

"Then I do have a weapon I can use against the Jedi." I said.

The other generals looked at me very interested. Kesyar looked at me in shock, as if he knew what I was going to do.

"What is it, General?" one clone asked.

I pulled the lightsaber from my pocket. I showed it to everyone, so they knew it was mine.

"Sir…how did you acquire that?" one clone asked very interested.

"Indeed. How did you, General?" asked Raech.

"I found it onboard the Green Dragon shipyard. It was lying in the central building command center, so I picked it up." I stated proudly.

"That will be a major advantage on the Jedi, sir." One clone said in a positive tone. "We might just pull this off."

"So who's in charge of this assault on the south tower?" Obisma asked.

"Uhm…which one of you is….General Meelae?" one clone asked.

All the generals pointed at me. I found it very ironic that Palpatine would choose me, considering I just acquired a new Jedi weapon.

"Awaiting orders, general." The clone said and saluted.

I sat there a moment thinking of a plan. I would disguise myself as a Jedi, and go into the south tower. There, one by one, I would seclude the Jedi away from each other, and kill them off. I explained my plan to everyone, and we went inside the south tower.

***

"Hello, fellow Jedi!" the guard said to me as I walked inside the south tower with my disguise.

"Hello." I simply said and moved onward.

"Any report about the communication devices?" he asked

"Why, actually there is." I said as I spun around to face him. I made sure no one was in the room, and I walked closer to him.

"What news is there from the central tower?" he asked. Those were his final words.

I turned on the lightsaber and stabbed his gut. I curved it upward through his chest and quickly turned it off. He was dead. I moved his body off inside a box. Another Jedi ran in, and I posed as the guard.

"THE CENTRAL BUILDING'S ON FIRE!" the Jedi yelled as he ran in. "WE MUST EVACUATE THE-"

I chopped of his head with the lightsaber. The Jedi aren't very good at protecting themselves. Find a way to sneak in below them, and the dumb Jedi are easy. I also hid his body in the box.

I walked into the next room, where Jedi were packing and getting ready to walk out.

"Quickly! We must escape the tower! The Central building's on fire!" one Jedi screamed.

"What do you mean?" I said. "The central building's fine. Someone cast a holocron and played a practical joke. I'm from the central tower. You're all safe. But we require you all to go back to your rooms and meditate on what we would do if it was a real fire."

The Jedi did as they were told. One room after another, I easily killed all of the Jedi. Accept for one. He was a mid-aged man. He was meditating as I told him.

"What are your thoughts master?" I asked him.

"Tell me…," he said" why would the Jedi ask us to perform such a task. Much less, assassins like you."

Are Jedi really this powerful? To be able to sense exactly what I was? I must have let my guard down! He's going to kill me! I've never been in an actual saber fight before!

"What are you talking about, master?" I asked.

He turned around and emitted his lightsaber. He walked toward me and began to attack. I had to defend myself; I emitted my lightsaber against his. We both pulled back.

"You're no Jedi. You're an assassin sent to kill us all off! Who are you working for?" he barked as he picked me up using the force.

It felt so strange. I couldn't move myself at all. I could move my arms, but that's all. I was totally immobile, just floating in the air.

"Tell me who your master is!" he yelled even louder.

"I…will never…tell a Jedi…like you!" I simple said.

He threw me up to the ceiling using the force. It hurt terribly. My back became numb, and I fell right on my gut when I hit the ground again. I couldn't stand it. The pain was eating me alive.

I stood up and pushed a button on my wrist; signaling every1 else I had a problem. I sat there, trying to stall the Jedi with talk about a Sith lord, but he always knew I was lying.

Finally, the troops and Generals broke in through the windows. The Jedi turned around in shock. He obviously didn't know the clones were pointing at him.

I ran up and stabbed him in the back. He screamed in pain, and he didn't see me coming. He looked behind him so see my face, and he saw I was a clone general.

"You're…a clone trooper!?" he said in pain.

"I'm no clone trooper. Jedi scum." I said as I dug the rest of the saber into him.

He fell to the ground before the troops or generals could say a thing. The Jedi was dead, and I removed the disguise. A clone ran up to me for support.

"Are you alright, general?" he asked.

"Yes…I'm fine…let's report to Palpatine on our success." I told him as I put the lightsaber back in my pocket.

As we all walked out, Palpatine had already been in the hallway looking at all the dead Jedi bodies I left. He looked at them and began laughing; just like in my vision. We all saluted as soon as he looked at us.

"Very impressive, general Meelae. I see your assault on the south tower was a complete success. How ever were you able to pull it off." He said. He sounded nothing like the Chancellor. The chancellor we knew had a kind tone in his voice, and this new Palpatine had an evil, decisive tone that sent a chill down our spine when he talked to us.

"With our basic training…uhm…" I didn't know what to address him by. He wasn't the chancellor anymore, and if I called him Palpatine, he would've ripped my head clear off.

"You may address me as My Lord, general. I have become the galaxies greatest threat, I am now the Emperor of a new empire!" he stated loudly.

"Very good my lord." I said. It felt strange calling him a lord.

"Now then," our new emperor began. "The uniforms of the clone troopers and yourselves as well will be changed. Clone troopers will also be given the name 'Stormtroopers', for they will storm every planet and conquer them! And all of you generals, Meelae, Raech, Obisma, Kesyar, will be given a rank up, and are now, Imperial Officers. Troops will still refer to you as general though. You are also still in charge of defense in the Sarvchi system, but you will be guarding it for the Empire."

"Very good, my lord." I said.

He glanced and walked away. All of us returned to the ship, and started our course back to New Defense HQ.

"Ironic. Our base is 'New Defense', and now we are a new defense." Obisma said.

Personally, I'd expect something like that from Kesyar, but he was quiet the whole way back. He was right though. We were a new defense. We were a new empire. And when I thought about it, we have become what all clone troopers had swore to destroy…


	3. Chapter 3: Aftermath

We made it back to New Defense HQ. Upon arrival, the clone troopers had no new uniforms and looked exactly as before. No new models of ships were in any of our loading bays and hangars. We weren't surprised, but we figured we'd have them soon. The Unknown Regions was sector one after all.

We all made our way to the front deck to check for new updates. The Republic database holonet site was totally crashed. A link automatically led us to the Imperial site. We put in our password and they worked. We were given news updates from the Emperor (who we obviously knew was Palpatine) to show the new data plans to the clone troopers. The shipyards in our system had already begun construction on them.

"Wow…these are nice ships…" said Obisma looking upon the designs.

It was foreign to us. All we saw were a bunch of numbers and bar codes. Then numbers connected to other numbers with a common digit factor. It was very confusing, but Obisma read it like a book.

"I'll alert the troops to get on construction right away. I have half of these parts already, so I could whip up a prototype in about a week." Obisma said and left the room.

The communication device was beeping. General Raech answered it and a trooper with what seemed to be the new armor came on the projection

"Who are you?" asked General Raech.

"I am stormtrooper ID # 64792113468," he said. "I have a message for General Raech of New Defense HQ."

"I am General Raech. Proceed with your message."

"The armor your troops have been assigned with is at the shipyard of Monarch II." He stated. "We have it ready for you when you're ready to pick it up." His voice sounded different from a clone trooper. Again, the empire was taking a dark twist on these new things.

"Thank you trooper, I'll be right there." Raech said. He ended the transmission and turned to General Kesyar and me. "Can I trust you'll have the station in good care while I'm gone?"

"Yes General." I said. General Raech left the room after that.

Kesyar watched Raech leave the room, and still refused to look at me. He had been strangely quiet, and I searched through his feelings. He felt deceived, afraid, and alone. He turned away and began walking toward the window.

"What's wrong General?" I asked him.

"It's nothing…" he simply replied.

"I don't know when the galaxies going to get I can search through people's feelings to know how they feel. You feel deceived. Is it that we're changing sides to this new galactic conquest for the Emperor?" I asked him.

He stayed quiet for a moment and looked up at me.

"Master Jedi, your assumption isn't that well, and could use improvement." He said with a small smile.

I knew what he meant. Calling me master Jedi meant he was saying I used force, and that he's frightened with how I acted at the temple. He was obviously scared with how ruthless I was toward all the Jedi we protected, and how I didn't hesitate to kill them. And what I said to those who protected us, as we protected them. The clones and Jedi were like brothers, but at the same time, without us even knowing, we were the complete opposites.

"Kesyar, I know the way I acted was wrong," I said. "But the Jedi aren't our friends anymore. We're now done with them, and there's not a Jedi left to stop us from winning. Our master will be a very happy man. Isn't that what we've always wanted?"

"BUT AT WHAT COST, GENERAL?" he yelled. "IS WINNING THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS? DO WE HAVE TO TURN OUR BACK ON EVERYTHING WEVE DONE JUST TO BE HAPPY?"

I think he was finally getting to think about what he said.

"To make Emperor Palpatine, one man, happy, it would cost thousands upon millions of lives! To add, we knew those lives….all of them…" he looked down. He was in a terrible mood.

"This isn't just about the Emperor, Kesyar," I began. "It's about-."

"No. That's all. The EMPEROR betrayed the Jedi, the EMPEROR turned on every Republic alive, and the EMPEROR has become the most evil person I KNOW!" he was terribly mad at this point.

I grabbed his uniform and pulled him towards me so his face was right near mine.

"And what are you going to do, rookie?" I said in a mean tone. "Quit the Empire and start a New Republic? Leave your friends behind and abandoned your job so you can do what you think is right?"

He was shocked. I let him go and he looked around the room as if what I said was illegal or something. I glared at him and told him:

"You're a clone trooper. We aren't supposed to have any feelings at all. But you seem to be the farthest one from any of us. Why is it that you can't be like the rest of us and follow orders?"

"…There are a lot of things that bother me here. We've become terrible people, we've killed Jedi, and I feel as if I'm the only general. You guys exclude me from everything. Those are just to name a few." He said.

This whole time he was lonely? He was being cocky the whole time, AND LOOSING! He acted as if he were in charge of everything all the time! And now he says he's lonely!

"Hey…Kesyar, we only treat you different because you never get any action. All of us get plenty of action, and you've never gotten any." I said and put my hand on his shoulder.

"…Then why can't I man up and take an assignment? I've never been assigned a job with fighting before." He said.

"You haven't been able to prove yourself," I told him. "The first mission you're assigned, show them everything you've got. Trust me." I told him and smiled.

He turned around and smiled as I was.

"Thank you, General." He said.

The most ironic part was I got an assignment after that. I left the room so Kesyar wouldn't throw another fit. General Raech came on my intercom.

"This is General Meelae." I responded.

"General Raech. Meelae, I need you to get to the shipyard Monarch II. There's too much armor here for my transport ship, and there's someone here for you." Raech explained.

"I'm on my way." I said. Who could have been at Monarch II looking for ME? I wasn't expecting a meeting. Could it have been the Jedi whose lightsaber I have?

Thinking about the Jedi got me thinking. The Jedi are all not dead. We've probably just hit them right in the heart, and their running away and scattering. I didn't want to think about it anymore and went to find Obisma for a transport ship.

I arrived in the hangar with Obisma. He was already working on his prototype. I walked behind him and got his attention. He turned around surprised.

"Ah, General. What do you need?" he asked.

"I've been asked to go to Monarch II with General Raech. I require the largest, most successful transport ship." I said in a stern voice.

"Alright, let's see…" he said looking through maps of hangars on board. "Ah! Here we go! I finished this one three months ago! It's the ERT-256; one of my models discredited by the Senate, but still passed exams! It's perfect for your mission!" and with that, he handed me the ignition codes.

I thanked him and went to hangar AC8P, where his ship was docked. It was huge. It was bigger than a Republic gunship, no, THREE Republic gunships. It would definitely carry whatever Raech had left of simple armor.

I easily turned on the ship and plotted the course for Monarch II. Considering it was very close to New Defense, It took me all of two minutes with Obisma's installed hyperdrive. I arrived on the shipyard, and landed the ship. I stood in front of the gate, and my key card opened the door. I looked inside, and the first thing I saw was Raech, with Garsta right behind him.

It was a trap! Garsta wanted me here so he could kill us off! It all came to me so fast! My first action was emitting my lightsaber and yelling:

"GENERAL! GET DOWN!"

"False alarm General." Raech said. "Garsta was the Emperor's personal terrorist, sent in this sector to see who was really able to keep the sector safe from him. He's on our side now."

I looked over at Garsta. He bowed to me and said:

"It's an honor working on the same side as you General. My current rank is assassin, so I now follow under your commands." Garsta said.

I wanted to say 'commit suicide' since I was still mad at all the things Garsta had done to us. But he was a very skilled man, so I simple told him:

"It's going to be an honor working with you too." I said as I put away my lightsaber.

"Now then, I've left the gate locked open so we can get the rest of this Stormtrooper armor into the ship you brought. Help he move these 3 brackets of armor left to your ship." Raech said.

We all moved the brackets of armor left to Obisma's ERT-256 and still had plenty of room. I told Garsta to come back to work at New Defense HQ. I was finally done being mad at him, and was ready for him to be awaiting at my feet for commands.

We made it back to New Defense, and Obisma and Kesyar were having a discussion is on the front deck. Garsta, General Raech, and I all went in. I opened the door and Obisma looked over and yelled:

"IT'S GARSTA! HE'S MADE HIS WAY INTO OUR BASE!" and with that, he pulled a pistol from his back pocket and shot Garsta right in the chest.

Garsta fell to the ground and lied there. I should've called ahead of time to tell everyone else about Garsta.

"NOOOOO!" I yelled as I looked down at my old rival's body. What was I to do? Was he dead? Did he just easily die like that? "MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN! MEDIC!"

A medic ran in the room and carried Garsta away to the medical station. I glared over at Obisma who was shocked at what everybody was doing and saying.

"YOU! YOU SHOT HIM! THAT'S TREASON YOU IDIOT!" I yelled at him. If he weren't at my rank level, I would have had him executed. "I CAN HAVE YOU REMOVED FROM THE EMPIRE!" I had no idea why I was taking my old rival's side over the friend I knew for years.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Obisma shrieked.

"Garsta was the emperor's spy! He was meant to train us generals, he was our newest assassin and you just shot him!" I explained in an angry voice.

"HOW WAS I TO KNOW ALL THIS?" he yelled.

I sat there. I didn't want to tell him it was my mistake for not calling him on arrival.

"The least you can do is go get the armor out of the ships we came back with!" I said and stomped away. Kesyar ran after me and walked with me to the medical station.

"Are you ok, General?" he asked me.

"No. I'm not. I'm going to go see Garsta as soon as he comes out of the medical station, and when he does, I'm going to try and beg him not to tell the Emperor of Obisma's mistake." I said and turned the corner.

"I'll go with you." Kesyar said. "What are best friends for?"

I didn't reply. He had always called me his best friend. I didn't ever get why, but he and I had some sort of connection, and we'd always been together.

So we sat and waited outside Garsta's medical room. I tried to come up with the right words to tell him so he wouldn't hate us for shooting him. I wondered how he was ever going to forgive us. Then the medical droid came in.

"How is he? Not too cranky about Obisma's trigger hand is he?" I asked.

"After close inspections and scans of medical needs," the droid began. "He's dead."

My heart sank. He was dead. What was the emperor going to say when he finds out we killed his newest imperial assassin?

"Well, we better go report to the Emperor." Kesyar said. I only agreed because the consequence of hiding it from him would have been worse than just telling him first-hand.

Kesyar and I entered the transmission room and got a hold of the Emperor. He was busy in other meetings for a few minutes, but opened a channel with us on the holonet site.

"What is it General?" the frail Emperor asked us.

I cleared my throat and prepared for the worst.

"Well, due to inconvenience in an despicable chain of events-." I started.

"Get on with it, General." The Emperor said in an annoyed tone.

"Assassin Garsta is dead." I finally said.

"No matter," he said. "I will hire a new assassin soon and send him to your sector."

"Oh…uhm…thank you, my lord." I said surprised.

"I do have an assignment for you, General," The Emperor continued. "The planet I n you system known as Sarvchi is still under control of the republic. I want you and General Raech to find a way to destroy all the republic forces on that planet, which includes a Jedi leader."

I froze. If this Jedi was able to destroy all of the clones in his squad when Order 66 was issued, he must have been a very powerful Jedi. Having only the knowledge of an Imperial Officer, do I have the ability to kill Jedi when they know I'm to destroy them? Order 66 was over, so all the remaining Jedi know that clones were the enemies. There was no way a sneak attack was in the question. I still had to do it though. It was a direct order from the Emperor.

"It will be done, my lord." I said and bowed.

The transmission ended. Was I going to be able to kill this Jedi? Maybe General Raech had a better idea of an attack strategy when we approached the planet.

"So what do we do know, General?" Kesyar asked.

"You heard the Emperor himself; General Raech and I are going to Sarvchi to kill the Republic forces and claim the planet in his new Empire." I said with a stern tone.

"And what shall I do till you return?" he asked.

"See what General Obisma has for you. I'm sure you can do something about those ships of his he's been working on." I told him.

We left the room, but took separate paths. He turned toward the hangars where General Obisma was, and I turned toward the front deck. I turned around and watched him. He wasn't nervous as usual, but calm. He used to always be that way; calm, collected. Ever since the recent activity has he started to act afraid.

I finally entered the front deck. General Raech was ordering a clone trooper to keep working. I didn't want to know what had happened that got him to yell at a front deck trooper.

"Uhm, General Raech?" I asked.

He turned to me in a surprised motion. He obviously didn't know I came in. He told the trooper something in an angry tone I couldn't hear, and then walked toward my direction.

"Ah, General Meelae. What news have you from Garsta?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"Assassin Garsta is dead. The medics could not save him." I said. "But I have an assignment from Emperor Palpatine."

"Oh you do?" he asked. "Go ahead. Tell me the details."

"Emperor Palpatine says Sarvchi is still a Republic planet. There are several Republic forces there along with a leading Jedi. He wants both you and I to investigate the matter and destroy all of the Republic forces and claim the planet." I explained.

"I see," he said pondering. "I'll inform General Obisma to ready us a ship. I have a fool-proof plan I've been dying to try."

"Very good, General." I said.

He turned on his communication device and told Obisma to ready us a ship with fifty stormtroopers on it. I yelled at him as soon as he finished.

"FIFTY? Why do you require fifty stormtroopers for this mission, General!"

"It's the exact amount as part of my plan. Now come. Obisma's transport is ready and is loading the troops now." He said and guided me to the door.

We walked into Hangar 5T-11 and found out transport already loaded with fifty stormtroopers. We found our way to our seats and warped down to the planet. We were informed by one stormtrooper that there is already an Imperial outpost there that could use our reinforcement. General Raech and I had no idea what they were talking about.

"We were not informed on such an outpost, commander." I told the leading stormtrooper.

"It's true, General. There's an outpost of only about twenty troops there now that have been fighting the Republic since Order 66 was even issued." The commander explained.

"We'll have to see for ourselves I suppose." Raech said.

We finally landed on Sarvchi, and sure enough, there stood a small Imperial outpost. It served as an excellent command post for our mission. We all gathered inside, and the navigation room just barely held us all in. General Raech had explained his entire fool-proof plan, and I couldn't find a flaw in it. The way he spoke, the determination he had in his voice, and the plan itself was too amazing to describe in words.

General Raech and all but moved the troops out so they could prepare for the plan to begin. We all walked out of the room, with me following the last of the troops. As I was exiting the room, General Raech spoke up and said:

"General. May I have a word with you about the plan?" he asked.

I paused and finally said: "Yes." I turned around and came back to him.

"Nobody asked about the Jedi, so I assume you and me are the only ones that know about him." Raech began. "See that means only one of us is going to have to take down the Jedi."

I knew exactly where this was going. He was going to try and talk me into it the long way. I decided to hear how he was going to word it before I could tell him my answer.

"I will be busy in charge of the troops in the frontline, distracting the Republic forces from the front, and the Jedi will be waiting behind them all. So we need someone to sneak around all of the troops, through the west forest, and fight the Jedi from there, destroying their final defense. So what I'm trying to say is, I want you to be the man to go and destroy the Jedi."


	4. Chapter 4: Jedi Knightmare

Just as I suspected. General Raech thought I was some sort of Jedi killing machine since the temple battle with the Jedi. Much less, ALL the generals thought I was. General Raech was offensive director, so he must've taken the affect he most severely.

"I accept your position, General." I said. I had no idea why I said that. I wanted to finally prove to all the generals that I wasn't made to be a Jedi and I wasn't going to be.

"Excellent," Raech said. He turned on the holographic map and a path through the west forest appeared. "This is the passageway I want you to take in order to reach the Jedi."

"When do you want me to leave?" I asked him.

"Now," he said. "I want you to leave now."

"Yes, General." I said and walked away.

I started outside the building and followed along the path that General Raech wanted me to take. It seemed like it went a little far back in the forest, but I guess it wasn't far enough for his standards. I was weaving in and out of trees, and I heard the battle begin.

I was headed north, and it was easier to find which way I was going since I always heard blaster fire from the east. I walked around a small hill and found an opening in all the trees. Just as I walked toward it, I heard something growl.

I stopped and looked around. I saw a plant that was looking toward me and growling angrily. I couldn't remember what they were called, but I knew what they were. They were a common plant found in the forests of Sarvchi. Scientists don't know how, but they can detect who's an intruder to their planet and who's native. Obviously it knew I wasn't from this planet, even though I considered it my new home since I got started in the Republic in this system.

I ignited my lightsaber and glared at it. It started to bite in my direction. I slowly walked up to it and searched it's feelings and found anger and betrayal. Did this thing know me? Did it know the Republic was transformed into the Empire? I didn't care about it anymore, and sliced its head with my lightsaber. I put my lightsaber back it my pocket and walked on.

"Stupid plant." I said to myself. "How are small things like that distracting me from my mission? The Emperor wouldn't make someone like me a Sith if I was distracted by other beings from my primary objective." And that unfortunately got me thinking as I walked. I didn't want to be a Jedi anymore. If I wanted lightsaber training and force ability, the lowest thing I could be was the second highest person in the galaxy; The Emperor's apprentice.

I finally made my way out of the forest, and a young man in brown and white ceremonial Jedi robes stood leading the small Republic militia. He looked at the battle, almost not seeing me completely. I slowly made my way around him, and tried to attack him from behind. I ignited my lightsaber as I swung at him, but I completely missed. He did a flip and turned around in mid-air. He glared at me and ignited his purple lightsaber.

"Who are you?" he asked. I heard a little bit of roughness in his voice. He looked like a strong, but still very young Jedi.

"I'm not permitted to answer that question, and I prefer not to." I said as ominous as I could.

He paused and looked at me for a moment, and then he closed his eyes, waved his hand and said:

"You're going to tell me who you are."

It was a Jedi mindtrick. I always thought I was smart enough for these. But some force came over me and I automatically told him everything.

"I am General Straetic Meelae. I serve newly appointed Emperor Palpatine in conquest for universal domination in his new order." I said as if he was my leader. I had a huge headache after saying that. I fell to the ground and clutched my head in pain.

"So, knowing what the Emperor has done and ordered so far, you're here to kill me." He said.

I got angry and swung at him again with my saber. He flipped again and landed on the roof of his one-story command post. It looked a little bigger than ours though. He used the force and pushed me back to the ground. Obviously, a battle was starting.

I turned around and waited for him to get back down. He looked at me puzzled. He started thinking for a moment, and sat down just to mock me. He looked down at me in a pondered expression.

"Do you know the force?" he asked.

For some strange reason, without a Jedi mindtrick, I responded no.

"So that's why this battle wasn't giving me a threat; you have nothing to defeat me with. I can sense everything you're about to do based on your emotions and thoughts, and you can't!" he joked.

Did he just give me a new power? He said he could sense what people were going to do based on their emotions and thoughts. Well if I can sense those, could I sense what he would do? Much less, could I defeat this Jedi?

Just as I asked myself that, I sensed through his emotions, and he was calm. Then in about a heartbeat, he became anxious and concentrated. I thought about why this would happen, and I thought; another attack! I was ready for him to leap down and try to swing at me.

"So while I sit here and watch you play with a weapon not fit for you-," he began. And right as he said that, sure enough, he used force speed to try and slice me up, and considering I was ready, I easily blocked it and counter attacked.

"I'll just sit here and watch as YOU play with a weapon not fit for you." I said.

He got angry. I had to sense his feelings to tell though. He looked totally calm on the outside. He swung his saber again and I noticed a pattern as I luckily jumped back out of the way. When his anger spikes, he's ready to attack. I used this knowledge to my advantage when I was near him. I ran up, angry at all of this crazy force business affecting me at all, and he sensed it and counter attacked.

I had forgotten he probably knew the same technique. I had to keep my cool the entire battle, or he'd sense an attack. The battle raged on. Our lightsabers clashing together, and our minds evenly matched. In the end, did one lightsaber get chopped in half by the one who earned the weapon. To clear that thought up and keep everyone from the edge of their seat, I chopped his saber in half with mine. The Jedi was completely shocked.

"A clone General…I've been defeated by a clone General?" he said surprised and fell to his knees.

I walked up to him and got close to his face.

"You say that like you could have beaten someone." And with that, I chopped his head.

This job didn't pay me enough to do with Jedi. I walked back to the command post, where General Raech was, waiting for me.

"I can see you earned yourself a double salary this month, General." Raech said with a laugh.

"So, the operation was a success," I began. "We'll have to contact the Emperor once we arrive at New Defense."

"I'll handle that," Raech said. "I want you to get some rest. You were able to kill a Jedi. You're simply a clone general given a lightsaber! That must have been some heated battle I missed eh, General?"

"It was heated enough to have the underdog win if that's your point." I responded.

We got in the ship and reached New Defense in a matter of minutes. When we arrived, General Kesyar and General Obisma greeted us with new uniforms. They were grey-green and had small badges on the chest.

"General Meelae, General Raech," Kesyar said. "The Emperor has sent new uniforms for you. They are for the rank of 'Imperial Officer'."

"Thank you, General." Raech said. "We'll wear them proudly." And with that we all walked away.

Obisma stayed to help the ship and evacuate the troops, Kesyar went to the front deck, Raech went to go wear his uniform, and I went to get some rest. I entered my private quarters and locked the door. I fell on my bed and went to sleep. I had the strangest dream.

In my dream, I appeared inside a dark room with practically no light. I looked around and heard a voice…a feint voice at first, then became a little stronger.

"Give it back…," a ghost-ish voice said.

"Give what back?" I asked looking all around me since I didn't know where I was being confronted from.

A ghost appeared in front of me. He looked angry with me. He glared at me with his transparent eyes. He stuck his arm out at me.

"Give back what belongs to me." He said.

"Who are you?" I asked before I said anything else.

"I am Jedi Master Saveeor. I want my lightsaber you took." He said still glaring at me.

His LIGHTSABER! It's HIS lightsaber I found! It belonged to him! Now his ghost was haunting me in my dreams till I returned it to its rightful place!

"Seems unlike a Jedi to leave his life's work just lying on a bench." I said since it was just a dream.

"I had no choice, inpatient one," he responded. "Now if you'd be so glad as to hand it over. A General such as you shouldn't have a weapon like this anyhow."

I pulled the lightsaber out and ignited it as a form of self-defense. I stood in a stance ready to kill him. If killing a ghost was possible.

"And why would I do that? Jedi scum." I said.

"I gave you a chance." He said. He picked me up and chocked me with the force. My vision was darkening by the seconds. Finally, I blacked out and the next thing I saw was the roof of my private quarters. My dream, well, more like my nightmare was over.

I sat up. I was going to go into the new Imperial holonet archives to find out about this Jedi Master Saveeor. I changed into my new uniform, stood up, walked out the door, and made my way to the front deck. General Raech was there in his new officer uniform. I walked up to him and he looked over at me.

"Have a good rest, General?" he asked.

"I need to access the Imperial Holonet," I told him. "There's someone I have to find."

"Here you go." He said and let me to my work at the site.

I looked under the key words of 'Jedi', 'dead', and 'Saveeor'. Nothing showed up. I decided since the site was new, I would go easy on it and just look up his name. Family members might appear or someone I could ask about him. I simply put in 'Saveeor' and waited for the results to come in. After a minute of searching, no results showed up at all.

"That's impossible!" I yelled. "There's no way a Jedi could exist with no trace!"

General Raech turned to me

"What seems to be the problem, General?" he asked.

"General? Have you ever heard of Jedi Master Saveeor?" I asked him.

"In all my years of a frontline general, and defense as well, I've never heard of him. Why? Who is he?" he asked

"He was a Jedi that appeared in my dream," I told him. "He said the lightsaber I found was his. But when I tried looking him up in the archives, nothing showed up at all. Not even an article with his name!"

"The site maybe new, but not stupid. There's no way a Jedi with that name existed." He stated.

"Unless someone found a way to erase his files." I pondered.

"Well it's not Imperial business, so it doesn't matter." Raech said. "Now, Obisma wants you to see his new prototype ship."

I just turned around without saying a word and headed for Obisma's prototype hangar. He was obviously going to test a new design, and not the new type of ship we're getting soon. I arrived and saw a fierce looking metallic ship with at least eight blaster cannons in the front and the back. It held 2 massive missiles on the sides, and looked similar to a Separatist Vulture Droid.

"Ah, General Meelae, you're just in time!" Obisma said. "I need you to see if you find anything wrong with my prototype. I really can't afford loosing this one."

I looked around the ship, and noticed a major flaw.

"General, there are no engine coolers. You forgot them again." I said.

"Oh!" Obisma's face looked surprised. "I forgot it again!" he ran out of the room and came back seconds later with an engine cooler. He put it in the ship in a matter of minutes and sent three clones inside.

The ship hovered a bit, and flew out of the hangar at fast speeds. It was shooting down asteroids, weaving through asteroids, and keeping total control.

"What do you think, General?" Obisma asked with a smile.

"Very impressive," I told him. "I sure hope the Senate passes those. What do you call them?"

"This is my prototype 'SFB-227'," he said. "And the senate better pass them, or I'll probably scrap the rest of them I made."

"I'll take one if it makes you feel any better." I said and chuckled.

"Thanks, General." Obisma said and smiled back.

The ship came back and successfully landed back in the hangar. It was on a rare occasion Obisma got his prototype's working. If they passed the exam, he'd automatically send the design plans to the Senate for approval. But every time he sends a design, they deny it and Obisma tosses the prototype in another hanger for someone else in New Defense to use for whatever. Those were usually the ships we used; the one's Obisma made and didn't want anymore.

My communication device beeped and I turned I answered it.

"General Meelae." I said.

"General, I need you and General Obisma to report to the front deck." said General Raech.

"We'll be right there." And I hung up. "Let's go General. General Raech has something for us at the front deck."

"Let's go then." Obisma said and followed me to the front deck.

As soon as we arrived, General Raech and General Kesyar were standing in front of the holocron transmitter. General Obisma and I walked up and we all stood around it.

"What's going on, General?" Obisma asked Raech.

"It's a meeting. We're going to have a meeting with the Defense Officers of the Mustafar system to plan an attack on the Separatist blockades." said Raech.

"AN ATTACK?" Obisma yelled. "BUT WE'RE DEFENSE! WE ONLY DEFEND! WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO PLAN ATTACKS!"

Raech pulled a holocron from his pocket with a message on it and showed it to Obisma. It had Emperor Palpatine's symbol on it, meaning it was officially from him.

"You dare not defy the Empire," Raech began. "What I've just told you was an assignment sent to us personally by Emperor Palpatine himself. He wants us to destroy the Separatist blockade. They destroy people within this sector, so it qualifies as a defensive assignment. The Mustafar system is in charge of outer assault, the Utapau system is in charge of garrison reinforcements, and we, the Sarvchi system, are in charge of the inside assault."

"So who are we sending to destroy the blockade from the inside?" I asked.

"You'll soon find out." Raech said and turned around to push the beeping button on the holocron transmitter. The meeting would start when he pushed the button.

Raech pushed the button and the massive transmitter projected four imperial officers that slightly looked like us. I had met them once before, but I forget who they are.

"General Enflam, this is the Sarvchi system reporting for mission conditions." Raech stated.

"It's an honor, General Raech." Enflam said. "We have the information from Palpatine."

I froze. One of the generals on their side kept staring at me. Did I have my lightsaber showing? Could he sense through my thoughts? Did he know something about Palpatine's information briefing that included me in a hard situation? I had to keep listening to the meeting to find out…


	5. Chapter 5: Lust for Battle

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," said General Enflam. "I am General Enflam, and this is my crew." General Enflam, as you could only imagine, had hair up in spikes like fire. It was even painted orange to add the effect.

He pointed to the only general who looked normal and introduced him as 'General Seenoo'. He looked like the rest of us, normal height, and width. He even had the same hairstyle, and looked focused.

He pointed to a man wearing a uniform with the sleeves ripped off. He had black glasses that hid his eyes. He introduced him as 'General Crusamer'. He looked ready to rip any of us to pieces, and looked strong enough to be able to.

Finally, he introduced the General who stared at me. He was very skinny and had pale skin. It was almost bleach white! His hair was also like that. Our hair was a deep brown, and his was bright silver. Enflam introduced him as 'General Reipora'.

Raech introduced us to the Mustafar defense team, and the meeting began from there. Enflam took a deep breath, ready to explain a lot.

"Well, this is what I got from Palpatine," he began. "The Emperor wants US to inform the Sarvchi system and the Utapau system of the attack. The Utapau system has been told that they will be sending reinforcements when called with this Imperial reference code; 341 73-H224. Remember that number if your inside reinforcements amount grows low. You will be sending two chosen generals to take an inside assault and plant two anti-charged plasmic explosive bombs in the east and west wings of the blockade station."

"Which two generals are assigned to go on this mission?" Raech asked.

"Emperor Palpatine asked," Enflam said as he looked at the order closely. "General Obisma and…General Meelae."

Of course. Why not send the force sensitive guy to go on the life-threatening missions? He won't mind! He's indestructible! Just because I'm good at my work, Palpatine always has to choose me. Well not this time.

"I don't know if I'll be able to go through with this mission." I interrupted.

Enflam looked at me with the greatest sense of disturbance.

"What did you just say to me, General?" he said in an annoyed, questioned tone.

"My right leg has been experiencing some muscle-." I began and Enflam cut me off.

"Whatever. I bore of your petty excuses. Send General Kesyar then. Emperor Palpatine said he was the backup. Send both of them inside the ship and have them set the two bombs that arrived to you this morning in the control rooms of the east and west wings of the ship. That is all" Enflam said annoyed and the transmission ended there.

"That's one hot temper that General's got. One false move and you're on his bad side." Raech said.

"Like being in a circle of hay and lighting a match. The fire takes all of one second to spread everywhere." Obisma added.

"S-s-so…I'M going on th-that da-dangerous m-m-mission thing he was talking about?" Kesyar asked in the most scared tone of his existence.

"Apparently, General." I walked toward them and said. I got up close to him so he could hear me whisper to him and nobody else could. "I'm doing you a favor. This is our biggest assignment in months. This will get these three systems tons of attention from other Imperials. You'll set an example to the rebellion Republic, and you'll be thought of to go on more missions like I always am. My leg doesn't actually hurt, I'm just helping you."

"Wow," Kesyar said as he looked at me when I was finished. "That's really thought out."

"Not really," I replied casually. "Now get yourself in that starship and make us proud." And I saluted.

He smiled and saluted as he happily walked away to the hangar with Obisma. He looked like a little kid walking with his casual father He had a hop to his step while Obisma walked straight and focused.

"What have I done?" I suddenly asked myself out loud. "The East wing's going to sit there forever with Kesyar's body inside."

"Hah! That's a good one! But if that rookie can actually pull this thing off, we'll have to stop all those jokes about him like that one." Raech laughed.

I stayed serious. What was he talking about? Did he just loose himself for a moment? I pointed out his mistake in that sentence.

"But if I became a Jedi, all of those jokes about me would have been expanded." I said in a low tone.

General Raech sat there for a moment and stared at me. He was just realizing what was happening and what I was saying. The attention span of Kesyar.

"You know that's not true," Raech began. "Now take a transmission device and lead your kid out of this mess." He handed me a transmitter and looked activated his, which was linked to Obisma.

"How are the custom star-ships that Mustafar made for you?" Raech asked Obisma. There was a little static between the beginning and ending of their messages, but the actual things being said came out fine.

"Not too bad!" Obisma said. "Get me the number of that Crusamer guy! I should be approaching light speed any second now."

General Crusamer was apparently in charge of the building in the Mustafar system. He was like our General Obisma, accept he made fewer, but far better things. Obisma doesn't take time, and that's why his creations turn out to destroy themselves. But General Crusamer takes his time and makes a new model every month or two. Usually his work is so precise and amazing that the Imperial's make his creations published for special assignment mission, such as this one.

"Kesyar, how is the ship functioning? Where are you?" I asked.

"The ship's fine," he responded. "And I should be approaching light speed in a minute or so."

Right then, General Obisma started a message and said:

"Ok Raech! I'm ready for light speed to the ship! Check out the blur of THIS!" he sounded pretty excited. His tone was happy, but not happy enough to screw up his mission. A blur of steel and blue flew right past the ship and a beam of neon light blue followed after it. As soon as it left we heard Obisma again saying: WHOOOOOOO!!!!!

"Wow! What a rush!" Obisma said. "I'm going to live so I can do that again to get home!"

"Alright, I'm approaching li-." Kesyar started, but the transmission was cut off by a huge flash of light and a scream of distress. Kesyar obviously went into light speed, but I didn't think he knew. "WOW…that scared the life out of me! I accidently hit the light speed lever without knowing light speed was even rea- AHHHH!" and Kesyar flipped out again. Why did I do this?

"What's going on General?" I asked him.

"The blockade," Kesyar screamed. "It's an entire war zone over here! I'm going to die on a mission like this! WOAH! …….I ALMOST JUST GOT SHOT!"

"General, do you know how to get to the hangar?" Obisma asked Kesyar. We were able to pick up on any communication that went between any Imperials in that entire area.

"Yea," Kesyar responded. "If I don't get shot down I should make it."

It took a little while, but Kesyar landed inside the hangar of the east wing. He was sneaking down the hallways to avoid fighting, even if he was equipped with a blaster.

"Alright general," Kesyar said in a quiet tone. "The target location should be a-." and Kesyar stopped. We heard a clang on the ground and then a droid voice saying: 'Hands in the air, intruder!'. Kesyar was doomed.

"You have to fight, Kesyar!" I tried yelling at him. But I heard no response. No clang or blaster noise. He wasn't doing anything. "FIGHT HIM, GENERAL!" I yelled louder. Still no noise. Could he have been paralyzed or even dead? "FIIIIIIGHT!" I screamed.

And right at that moment I heard several clanging noises along with a droid voice screaming, then finally a blaster noise. Kesyar finally stood up to his fear and beat someone.

"I-I don't believe it!" Kesyar said surprised. "I did it!" Not like it took him a two minutes to finally understand what I was saying, but he did it.

"Great," I said. "How far are you from the target area?"

"It should be right around the corner." He said. We started hearing footsteps from his position, and then he stopped.

"Now what?" General Raech asked, paying more attention to my conversation n with Kesyar over his own.

"General," Kesyar began. "The entire hallway guarding to target area is literally FILLED with droids! I see battle droids, medic droids….and bubble in heck, I see super battle droids!"

Great. If it took Kesyar a minute to kill one droid, it's going to take him at least an hour to get the courage to take on a hallway. Even I would take a minute to think of a plan before that…

"Well not necessarily," Raech said pulling up a map to show me. He pointed to some key points and lines as he explained the situation to me. "This blinking dot is Kesyar. So if this is his target area, and this hallway guarding it is filled with droids, then he could take this back way where the artillery is. He could find grenades, or missiles that will blow the group away."

"Would that work?" Kesyar asked. "Which way is it from my position?"

"It's our best shot. Due South." I said. His blinking dot started heading for the artillery, which he reported as 'completely left open'. He made his way inside and found two, one-handed grenade launchers that were fully loaded and ready for action.

"I can't wait to see how this plays out." Kesyar said, still sounding shaky. His blinking dot headed back to his old position, and he told us to get ready. Suddenly we heard a massive explosion from his intercom, following with blaster noises, clanking, and more explosions. We couldn't tell WHAT was going on! Finally, after a minute, all the noises stopped.

"Kesyar!? Are you still there?!" I asked nervously.

A small pause kept on from what I finished saying to the next sound I heard.

"I'm alright…" Kesyar said in a worn out tone. "I'm never doing that again…." He was panting throughout his words, he was so exhausted. Just then, over his intercom, we heard a massive explosion, and Kesyar screaming.

"What's going on over there!?" I asked quickly after he stopped screaming. Before he could answer we heard Obisma come back on his transmitter.

"Alright! My bombs off! The west wing of the blockade is officially out of business!" He said proudly.

"Excellent work, General." Raech said. He turned and gave me a look that said 'Am I good or what?' I gave him a look back that said 'or what.'

"What was THAT?" Kesyar asked.

"Obisma's bomb went off. Hurry and set your so we can call Palpatine back with a check on our mission." A few moments later, we heard Kesyar say:

"Alright! Bomb's set! I'm out of here!" And a few moments later, we heard no boom, but Kesyar's ship engine as he approached light speed. Both Obisma and Kesyar warped back almost simultaneously. A few minutes later, we were all on the front deck, getting messages, and congrats from all sorts of Imperials in this system and one's close by. We were heroes to them now. But not like Palpatine big heroes. Just small heroes, like the guy who finds your paycheck you dropped yesterday. Big help and remembered, but not looked up to and forever engraved.

We called Palpatine, looking just as fear-some as ever. I explained everything that had happened throughout the mission. He always seemed satisfied through the entire meeting. But it wasn't until the last couple minutes of me explaining did he have a strange look toward his face, or what I saw of it. He waited until the explanation was complete, then I asked him if something was wrong. He simply pointed at the lower half of me.

"What's that in your pocket, General?" he asked.

I didn't have anything in my pockets….wait….I had my lightsaber in my right pocket! When I looked down, I could already see part of the emitter pointing out, and half of the cloth was hanging out the side! If I lied to the overall dictator of our empire, I would have been slain through this message! I took it out of my pocket to show him.

"It's…a lightsaber, my lord…" I said. I was going to die, I knew it then.

"Explain to me why you have such a weapon. I don't recall permitting generals to carry them…" he gave me a tone that I took as 'someone's in trouble'.

"My weapon had been shot in the mission to the Green Dragon shipyard," I began. "So to substitute my blaster, I grabbed this lightsaber I found in the control tower."

The Emperor stood silent. He pondered as he thought amongst his dark thoughts. Finally, when I thought he was thinking of punishment, he smiled with an evil smile and looked back down toward me.

"I'll make a deal with you, General," he began with a tone of delight. "It's your choice. I can confiscate the saber and get you a blaster better than you've ever seen…OR…if you really wish…I can send you, to a force trained man on Coruscant, who can teach you how to use your force and saber powers to its fullest extent, and be the most powerful General in the galaxy!

Now THAT was a tempting offer. All the Generals looked at me. The Emperor was smiling and waiting for an answer. Kesyar gave a look of fright, Raech gave a look of surprise, and Obisma gave a look of fret. I knew what they were thinking. 'Great, now he thinks we're going to hold this offer over his head as a Jedi joke or something'. Well I thought they would. So I said exactly what they didn't want to hear.

"That's quite alright Emperor, but I will take down the offer. I will send the lightsaber to you immediately." I said as the Generals shook in disbelief of what just came out of my mouth.

"That's too bad, general." Palpatine said. "But your decision is yours. I'll await this saber."

The transmission ended. Raech looked at me and almost exploded.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, GENERAL!?" he yelled. "THAT WAS PROBABLY A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPROTUNITY FROM THE EMPEROR HIMSELF!"

"I'm destroying all my paths to the retched Jedi." I said "To me, the choice I chose was one that will help me with that. Now everyone, I'm going to take the lightsaber to him personally. I have no idea on what will happen, so if I'm not back in a month without word, assume me dead."

Raech finally cooling down caught his breath and looked up.

"Yes, General." He said as he dismissed the other generals out of the front deck. As soon as they left, I turned my attention to the large transmitter I spoke to the Emperor on. A trooper was about to take it away when I spoke up.

"No trooper," I said. "I'm not done with this yet. I have one last call to make." He could see determination in my eyes.

"If I may ask, sir," the troop began. "The meeting, and the mission briefing is over. Who could you be calling?"

I turned my head upward and the fire in my eyes grew as the stared at the transmitter. I squinted my eyes and answered.

"The Emperor."


	6. Chapter 6: Blind Eye

The stormtrooper punched in the numbers for me and casually walked away like he had something better to do that orders. In any case, I called the Emperor for a very important reason. What I previously told him was a lie. He came back on; sounding persistent at first, then interested to find it was me.

"Did I not just finish a meeting with you, General Meelae?" he asked.

"You did, my lord. If it's not too late," I began and looked around the room. Nobody important like any of the generals were listening. Probably a few troops were I'm sure. "I would like to take your offer of training."

"I thought you might." The dark man said. "There are still the remains of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. There is a man who goes by the name of Senator Larran. He was a senator that everybody thought died in the assault. He was secretly trained through the powers of the force, and the arts of lightsaber fighting skills. The Republic remnant have no idea he's still alive, but we know otherwise. He was taken prisoner and is now held at the temple. He will teach you everything you will ever need to know."

"Thank you my lord." I said and bowed to him. "I shall inform the temple of my arrival."

The projection of the Emperor disappeared. That meant it was time for me to go. At this point, based on all the reports I read on training, it's going to take more than a month for me to get even the smallest handle of the force. So the generals are going to think I'm dead, but I'm sure the Emperor will cover a replacement. So my journey was readied and all I needed to do was go. I walked to the hangar to get to my ship. I climbed in and all of the generals showed up to the hangar.

"Is something wrong?" I asked them.

"We just wanted to wish you a safe journey to Coruscant." said Raech.

"And we wondered if you actually wanted that training, and that you getting rid of that saber is our fault." said Kesyar.

"Again, none of this is your fault," I told them. "I just want my ties to the Jedi destroyed. I'm bringing this to the Emperor now."

The generals thought a moment, and smiled to wish me good-bye.

"It's going to take less than a month for you to be there and back," Obisma said. "So be back soon, because I don't want to have to worry about you or my ship being destroyed. So I better see that ship in top from when you bring it back!" he said and smiled.

"Are you sure you'll be OK? You'll be back in a month right?" Kesyar asked.

The grief was starting to kill me. But once I set my mind to something, nothing gets in my way.

"If I'm not Kesyar, you're to assume me dead and reassign a replacement. Just find one yourself though, because I don't want the Emperor to find out that the lightsaber I'm bringing him was stolen."

The generals agreed and let me off. I took the starship and flew away. I took one last look at New Defense. I wouldn't see it again for longer than I imagined…

I finally made it to the Jedi Temple. Imperial guards came to see my safe arrival. I opened the cockpit and exited my ship. The guards immediately came up to me and asked for identification. I gave them my ID, and they escorted me to a dark region of the temple. They stayed quiet as they escorted me through.

Finally, they led me to the cell of a man who was in tattered clothing. He had dark skin, even after being in this cell for all this time. He had black hair, and didn't look up when we arrived. The guard looked at him.

"Alright senator," the guard said. "The Emperor has given you a choice. We will free you if you can train general Meelae to be a powerful general in the arts of lightsaber and the force. Refuse, and we'll torture you in here for the rest of your life."

That sounded like a pretty tempting offer to me.

"Your Emperor is full of it." The senator began. "But I'll take your offer."

"But if you kill him, or we have any other problems with the training, we'll put you back in the cell to die." The guard said gripping his spear.

"Of course." He said and stood up waiting to be let out.

The guards let the man out, and he calmly walked up to me. He took my hand and shook it. This man could probably beat me down at any second, so you could only imagine how excited I was.

"I suppose I should thank you," he began. "You are getting me out of that cell I suppose. I've been in there a long time."

"I'm sure. You must be exhilarated to get out." I told him.

"Well, if I want to stay out, I can't screw this up. Do you already have a lightsaber?" he asked.

I took the lightsaber out of my pocket to where it barely showed. It wasn't a secret or anything, just didn't want to totally show it off.

"Alright, so I'll take you into the next room around this corner and down a hall or two, and I can begin showing you some techniques with it." he said.

"You seem eager." I looked at him and smiled.

"I am," he said laughing. "It seems you know to sense people's thoughts then?"

"And that's all I CAN do." I said laughing as well.

"Alright." He said like he was acting a little more serious. "What am I thinking now?" then he took his ground and stared me in the eyes.

I noticed I had about a couple inches on him, so I had to stare slightly down to stare into his eyes. I looked through his thoughts and saw what he thought. He was imagining a man falling out of the temple window at one of the high peaks with lightning bursting out the window which he fell out of.

"It was a man…he was zapped out of the high windows." I told him. "Why do you imagine such thoughts?"

"I don't," he replied. "I was sensing the future. Another Jedi trick. You simply just saw what I saw. Just the same as someone copying off a test."

"Well that's going to be on my mind awhile." I said.

"I can see that." The man said and put his hand on his chest. "I don't believe I introduced myself. I am Old Republic Senator Larran."

"I am Imperial General Meelae. Nice to meet you…did you say senator?" I asked him.

"Yes," he began. "I was a senator. Nobody ever knew I knew the force. I practiced in secret, and when the time came, I never had enough practice. But I began training mental ability in that cell all this time…and I think I've improved. Come; let's go to that training room."

We walked into the training room down the hall from where we were standing. The guards stayed there and went back on patrol duty. Apparently they trusted their force sensitive captive. Well, more than me at least. I was already planning on killing this man after my training was over. We arrived in the room with a spacious area, target dummies made of stone, and a beautiful view of the rustling city of Coruscant below.

"Alright," Larran said. "The Jedi's life goes into his weapon. That lightsaber you hold in your hands is your life."

I held the lightsaber in my hands and stared down on it. I looked back up so I didn't miss anything.

"And even more important than that lightsaber, is the force. The force is your soul. That soul is more important than your life. This way, the galaxy consists of Mind, Body, and Spirit. The Mind is your ability to use the force. Your body is you and your lightsaber in the combination of your life. And the Spirit is everyone around us. Do you see?"

"Very interesting, senator." I said, still listening closely. These lessons seemed as they would pay off in the future. Apparently, all of this is going to save my life one day. Or it at least it better.

"Master. Not senator." He said. I can call him what I want! I hope he knows that any second, I could stick him back in that cell.

"Apologies, master." My mouth finally spit it out. This was already giving me a bad vibe.

"Right then." He reached in his back pocket and held up a lightsaber. He held it out at me and gave me a look. "Now show me what you can do. Attack me with all you've got. If you can kill me, I suppose you don't NEED training. I could use a good warm-up."

I knew what this was. He was trying to make me angry and find an open spot in my attacks. I decided I would act like I was angry while I looked for a weak point to leave my personally reminder that he's no master of mine. I grabbed my lightsaber and turned on the blade. He sat there without his lightsaber emit.

I acted angry by charging at him and yelling with the saber over my head. Then I swung it down on him, and in probably the blink of an eye, he emitted a blue lightsaber blade that completely shot down my attack. In another second, he did a twirl to get enough momentum to swing a power attack at me. I ducked and he brought the saber quickly downward. I rolled out the way. He hadn't broken that stupid look on his face yet.

"Come now. You've been on the outside while I've been in that cell!" he remarked.

"You're going to wish you had the chance to stay in there, old man." I said and tried to repeat his spin move. He easily front flipped over me and landed with the lightsaber inches away from the back of my head. I slowly acted like I was about to surrender. Then I swung the lightsaber into his with all the muscle I had and scarred his right hand. His lightsaber flew out and across the room.

"AGH! MY HAND!" he grabbed it and screamed. He stopped when he saw my lightsaber blade inches from his neck.

"It'll be a lot better when I can find myself a better master. Someone who can teach me more than this trash of a style you just showed me." I picked up the saber ready to cut his neck. "Nice working with you, senator." I jolted the saber forward, but right before my eyes, he rolled back, used the force to grab his saber, and jumped into me with a kick to my chest.

"AH!" the pain from the impact caught up with me. It was harder to breathe, and I was slowly letting go of my lightsaber. And right when Larran saw that, he pulled it out of my hands with the force. I was on my knees, and was barely breathing.

"Maybe I should find an apprentice willing to give me more discipline." He said and smiled with both lightsabers in a scissors formation around my neck. "I didn't want our training to be painful. But you're forcing my hand. Speaking of which…" and with that, he turned off the lightsabers and threw mine at me. "Get up. You look like a slob…are you sure you can handle the training?"

"Just…get on with it…what do you have next for me?" I asked.

"Well my friend," he said and smiled. "your master has long weeks of training in mind."

"For the last time, there's no way I'm treating you like a master." I sternly said/

"Well," he began. "For the record, I wasn't the master of yours I was referring to." He pointed to a droid that flew in the room with a camera on it. "I ment the Emperor. He's going to be watching your progress from here on out. This way he knows your strengths, your weaknesses, and your ability. What you can pick up on, what you can't and if your worthy. Are you STILL going to train with me and my ways?" he smiled again.

The Emperor was probably going to know all of this anyway. What I could do is fake to mess up some things, and totally screw up in my best subjects to throw off the Emperor if he ever uses the footage and knowledge he's seen against me. All of this was a great possibility for me to be ahead of the Empire. One day, I would be the top of them all. Why would I have to wait for such greatness? I turned my head slightly upward so he could almost see my face.

"Quit your stalling." I said. "Start the training already."

H Larran probably gave me the stupidest looking smile he's ever given me yet. He honestly thinking of turning me into a success, but he's thinking he would have all of the attention and fame. He was turning me into his own weapon. I can't wait to have all my training pull off and give me the ability to kill this idiot. And after he smiled, he turned and said a few words.

"I'm so glad you can see it my way. So, let's begin our training."


	7. Chapter 7: Forcefull Hand

Three months passed from that moment. In that time, I became a powerful opponent. Fluent in both lightsaber, and force abilities. I had become a great power, able to take down a Jedi. Thanks to the help of senator Larran. Despise him anyway. The great power that flew through me was greater than his at this point. My training was complete.

"Excellent, my apprentice." The Emperor said during a holographic transmission including Larran and I as well as Palpatine. Larran tried to show me off by showing what he taught me to the Emperor. He had been enjoying himself with this. A little too much…

"So, what do I get for teaching this man?" Larran asked, sucking up to the Emperor.

"You can have your freedom from your cell. That should be enough. If it's not, then we could always put you back in it." The Emperor responded with a smile.

Larran looked down, apparently wanting more that the freedom he was originally promised. But he looked back up, pretending like that was enough.

"Thank you very much, Emperor Palpatine." Larran said.

"So, General Meelae. Feel free to say your good-byes to Master Larran…" Palpatine said in a strange tone.

The Emperor was watching me to see what my next move would be. Was he trying to tell me something?

"Go on," Larran said. "Go ahead and thank me for all the work I've done. Maybe a small reward of your own, perhaps?" he looked like he was gloating.

"Go ahead, General," Palpatine said. "Give him something that you think he deserves." And he smiled with his evil smile, awaiting my reaction.

Now I understood. I was going to do this later, but I figured I might as well get it over with now.

"Master," I called him over to the window I walked to. "I have a reward for you."

He happily walked over to the window in front of me and looked as if he knew I'd give him something.

"Hey! You called me master! Good boy! You almost never called me master!" he said standing between me and the window now.

"And I won't make that mistake again." I said in a low voice. I quickly raised my hands in front of me and blasts of lightning came out. He was thrown out of the window, and probably plummeted to his death. So THAT'S what the vision was when I started my training…that makes sense.

"Excellent work, general." Palpatine said, enjoying himself while watching the whole thing. "Now we won't have to worry about him joining that rebellion."

"Rebellion?" I asked him. I thought our only enemy was the republic, and we already crushed all of them.

"Remnants of our attacks have left many to see plans in defeating the Empire to free the galaxy." The Emperor said. "They call themselves the Rebels."

Great. Another enemy we'll eventually have to consult. Who led these rebels? Who were they? What are they really after? That old bag Larran has been keeping me out of touch with the galaxy, I'll say that much.

"Well then general," the Emperor began. "I assume you should be on your way back to the 'Unknown Regions'?"

"Yes, my lord." I said and bowed.

The hologram turned off, and I got back to my ship, which the Empire had kept in top-shape for me. I walked inside and recognized the controls. I set the course for New Defense, and I was off.

Now the generals think I'm dead too. It's been over the time period I told them to assume me dead with. Won't they be surprised when they see me back. But…will they all still be there? What if they went on a mission and never came back? What if New Defense had been destroyed by a major accident?

My ship came out of light speed finally after my long thought process and just to my surprise. War ships I had never seen before had surrounded and docked in New Defense. These had to be the rebels. So now my thoughts went from 'it had been destroyed by accident' to 'overrun by the Rebellion'.

I turned on the cloaking device function on the ship. I had secretly made my way into an open, deserted hangar. I saw ships docked, but nobody inside, or around them. I had thought the hangar was completely empty. Boy was I wrong.

"FREEZE! INTRUDER!" a man's voice said. I looked over and saw, what appeared to be the Rebellion, with a rifle pointed at me. I tried to look innocent and put my hands up. I decided to se where he'd take me anyway. This was my chance to see what they've done to the station.

"Come with me! Hey…you look like an Imperial Officer!" he said, walking me to the prison section of the ship.

"As a matter of fact, I am." I told him honestly.

"Great, so the Empire sent reinforcements. That means they know we're here." He said discouraged.

Now was my chance to lie.

"Oh, yes," I lied. "They have a massive space laser aimed straight at the station. They said they would blast the place to pieces if you didn't leave in a few days."

"QUIT TALKING PRISONER!" he yelled and pushed me to walk faster.

Eventually, we were outside the prison, and he already had me cuffed. He stepped inside and stopped, so he could be inside, and still keep an eye on me, so I wouldn't run.

"Hey, Darlaak!" the rebel said. "I got another Officer!" he came back and grabbed me.

"Bring him in!" said another voice, which I guessed as this Darlaak guy. The rebel took me and threw me inside. The first things I saw were rebels lining the entire hall of cells, our prisoners of war we had captured were gone, and defense generals Kesyar, Obisma, and Raech inside of a cell, cuffed and on the ground. I looked down at them as they gasped in disbelief.

"General!" Kesyar exclaimed. "You're alive!"

"Meelae?" Raech asked. "Is that really you?"

"I thought you were dead! We all did!" Obisma said.

I was still silent as the rebels prepared to throw me in the cell with them. The rebel that brought me in started pushing me into the cell. I had to think fast. There were maybe 20 men inside of the hall; I guessed I could take them out. I gave it my all at least.

"Wait…" the rebel said. He pulled my lightsaber out of my pocket. Sure saved me the trouble, that's for sure. "What's this?"

"Allow me to show you how it works." I said. I used the force to pull it out of his hands and into mine. I quickly used it to cut my cuffs. I span around and sliced him right in the stomach. His body fell, and I heard gasps from the rebels, and from the generals.

"GET HIM!" yelled the rebels.

"GET THEM!" cheered the generals.

It was no problem for me, the rebels charged at me, and I pushed them all down into one side of the hallway. They all sat in a pile of exhausted bodies. It took all of a few seconds for me to kill them all with a flash of lightning. I finished and turned at the generals to release them. They were very surprised, and I used to force to open the gate and unlock their cuffs.

"When did you learn to do all of this, general?" Obisma asked.

"I've secretly been in training for the past three months." I told them. "I now understand what it means to wield a lightsaber."

"So are you like a Jedi now?" Kesyar said.

That was it. My anger of being called a Jedi got the better of me and I chocked Kesyar using the force. The other generals freaked out at first, then tried to calm me down.

"I would never go as low as to be scum like Jedi, general." I said angrily. Finally, I let him down as he grabbed his neck and gasped for air. "I was a general, and I still AM a general. I am just more powerful than I ever was. Anyone have any other comments?"

Kesyar looked like he was going to say something else, but was too busy catching his breath.

"Now, I want to be treated with the same respect I was. Don't treat me like I was Palpatine himself," I began. I looked at Kesyar. "But don't treat me like trash either." I looked over at Raech. "General Raech. What can you tell me about the invasion of the rebellion?"

"W-well general," he seemed shaken at first, but got used to it. "The rebels came at us about 2 weeks after you left. As you could have seen, they have the entire place under their control. We can't contact the Empire, reinforcements, or anyone for that matter. They have warships outside, and too many men to be exact inside the station."

"So, general," I said. "Do you have another offensive plan for our defense?" Raech usually made all of the plans ready for invasions, assaults on republic forts in our sector, and even attacks on a global scale.

"Actually, we've all thought about it. We never had a plan that would work. But now that you've got new powers, we have more options." He said and smiled. I liked how quick it took him to treat me like me, and not some force powered freak who could snap him in one second. "You up for it, general?"

"Make my day." I told him, ready to get these rebels out of my home.

"Well," Raech began, grabbing his confiscated things out of the storage unit in the prison. "There is a ventilation shaft a few hallways down. You could jump up into it, and it leads straight to the front deck. That will be a major advantage, and the leader is probably there as well. I will take my solo mission to capture the engine room, and Obisma and Kesyar will work together to capture hangars."

Everyone seemed to like the plan. Raech had out-done himself again. I put my hand on his shoulder and he jumped for a second. This WAS going to get them some getting used to.

"Nice job, general." I told him. "Alright! Let's get these rebels out of New Defense! Show them no mercy! We are not to be trifled with!"

"YEA!" all the generals responded in unison. They were all pumped and ready to go.

"GO!" I yelled. And we all ran off. I sprinted down the hallways and made my way to what I thought was the ventilation shaft. I jumped up and pushed it open. I spread out so I could stick in the walls, since the shaft was going vertically. I climbed up, and eventually made my way to a path.

It was a maze in there. I climber up, down, left, right, and every other direction there was. At this point, I figured I could burst through the dark tunnels into the light of the halls and just break my way though rebel defenses. But I urged myself to keep going. The vents were dark, quiet, and dusty. Sometimes when I passed through a room, I could hear rebel officials talking. They made plans about what they wanted to do to capture back Imperial planets. I finally had made my way to the vent that separated me and the front deck. Several rebels were in the room, and it looked like a more humanized version of what we did.

"Time to get this finished." I told myself. I saw a man who was decked with several combat awards. He had to be the leader of this operation. He would make the perfect hostage for the rebels to get them where I wanted them. I used the force and jumped through the vent, and before anyone could look, I grabbed the leader and held him to my chest and emitted my lightsaber to his neck.

"MASTER QUALII!" one rebel screamed. Master? Was the man I held hostage another Jedi? Were there still masters out there who trained people to fight for the rebels? This Qualii sounded familiar. I suppose I've heard his name on the Imperial database, or in a meeting or something. I tried not to lose my focus.

"Alright! Surrender the station or the Jedi gets it!" I yelled. All the rebels stood up but stood in shock. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" and the rebels obeyed.

"Pick them back up." The Jedi said. The rebels obeyed him over me. I tightened the grip I had on his neck.

"Shut it Jedi," I said. "This station belongs to the Empire so the galaxy can be at peace. So keep your nose out of our business."

Suddenly I was pushed back at an immense force and slammed into the wall behind me. I looked up and saw he had one of his hands facing me. I stood up and gave him a look.

"The EMPIRE wants peace?" Qualii asked me. He turned around to show me his face. He was an old man, had to be in his late 50's early 60's. "The Empire wants to bring destruction! The Rebellion simply wants free will and peace in the galaxy!"

I pointed my lightsaber at him to show him I was done playing around. I was ready to just fight this man and beat him at his own game. The lightsaber style was probably my best.

"You really want to try that boy?" Qualii told me. "I'm a Jedi Master. You are an Imperial Officer with a sword. You don't know what you're capable of."

I lunged at him with a powerful spinning technique. It spins in a windmill formation in front of me, and it ran into his blade right as he turned it on to defend himself.

"I think I do know what I'm capable of, old man." I told him.

He and I struggled with our sabers, trying t push both of them into the other. It was me, then him, then me, then him, then when I was about to win, he pushed me up in the air, and I slammed the ceiling. He flipped me around and let me drop on my head. I was trying to recover, and at that time, he pushed me across the room. That man sure knew his way around the force.

"So did you start fighting me yet, or are you still teasing?" I said smiling as I stumbled to get up.

He turned back to what he was doing like I wasn't there. He was talking to rebels and worked on a computer. He was ignoring me.

"Hey!" I shouted. "You just going to ignore me then?"

"You're no challenge, so I know you can't stop us. And you're to weak to defeat me. I'm done with you." He said and turned away.

I ran up and jumped into the air, and I emitted my lightsaber ready to come down on him. He flipped his lightsaber on and started deflecting my attacks without even looking. This man was truly talented. I used the force to try and push him and he blocked it with his hand. Then he simply turned around. He held his hand out at me.

"Go on." He said. "Cut it off. I want to see you cut off my hand."

…What? What was this? Some sort of Jedi trick? Was he simply messing around? I know he didn't just want his hand randomly cut off.

"HURRY UP!" he got persistent. "CUT OFF MY HAND!" I continued to sit there and wonder what he was doing. "NOW!" I stopped thinking and went to cut off his hand to shut him up. And right as I lifted my saber to cut it off, he pushed me with the force. Yep, definitely a Jedi trick.

I flew and slammed into the window, breaking it and flying through. I thought I was going to die. Then suddenly, it felt like I realized what was going on. I grabbed one of the frames of the windows. Holding my breath, I busted through the windows and jumped back inside. A metal sheet covered where the windows were.

"I wasn't finished yet, Jedi." I said angrily. We got into a ridiculously intense saber clashing. I was finally wearing him down. We were evenly matched in skill. Eventually, the rebels tried to bust in and shoot me while I was distracted with Qualii. I was able to slice them down easy.

Qualii finally made a slip up. He raised both of his hands to attack, and left his torso open. I pushed him against a wall and he dropped his saber. I picked it up while he was against the wall, and threw both of them at him. Both flew directly through his shoulders and pinned him to the wall. He screamed as the blades cut through all of his arm muscles. I walked up and used my hand to choke him to death. He finally died, and I took both sabers.

The rebels tried to shoot at me, but eventually, I killed the rest of them. I sliced down bullets, cut off heads, and pretty much dominated against every threat. Finally, when all was done, the room was silent. I pulled Qualii's lightsaber out from my pocket and stared at it. It was beautifully crafted, and kindof rusty in a few areas. It was curved with designs all along the blade. It was a grand design. I put it in my pocket to show the Emperor as proof I had killed him.

My comlink beeped and I turned it on to see who was calling. It was general Raech.

"How's the front room, general?" he asked.

"It's ours. There was a terribly tough Jedi as their leader. I was able to kill him, find out who he was, and grab his saber." I explained.

"So who was he?" Raech asked me. "We need to send a report to the Emperor when we're done anyway."

"Uhm," I said, trying to remember. "Oh, he said his name was Master Qualii."

"QUALII?" he gasped in disbelief. "YOU KILLED QUALII? He's a hugely mastered Jedi with the capacity and power to rip through an army! You single-handedly defeated Qualii!?"

"KILLED him, Raech." I corrected. "KILLED him."

"I still don't believe that!" Raech said. "Excellent work, general! The Emperor is going to be a very happy man after our report. Anyway, I sent Obisma up to your position. He was able to capture his post. Kesyar is after another post, and Obisma should be there any minute."

"General Meelae!" I heard Obisma say as he opened the door.

"Speak of the devil," I said. "I'll contact you soon general" I said and hung up our communication. I kind of cut him off. I felt like the Emperor when he ends transmissions like that.

"General Meelae, are we done here?" Obisma asked.

"Yes. Let's go help out by finding remnant tro-." and an alarm cut me off.

I looked behind me and looked out the window. A rebellion war ship had finally exploded and started hurdling towards the station.

"What's going on up there Meelae!?" Raech came back on the transmitter and asked.

"One of the war ships is headed toward the station!" I replied.

"We'll never get out in time! You need to use the force and stop that ship!" he barked.

"ARE YOU INSANE!?" I screamed in disbelief. "I'M A ROOKIE WITH THIS STUFF!"

"You're an Imperial, general!" he told me. "Nothing stops the Empire!"

I was torn. What was I going to do? I couldn't push a ship that huge away in a thousand years! The only chance I had was to start using the force on small parts of the ship and push THEM away. But at this rate, I'd never move all of them in time. The ship was closer and closer before I had thought we were all doomed. My life was flashing before my eyes. I saw a white light, and then suddenly, as if I came back to reality I heard Obisma yell from across the room.

"GENERAL!" Obisma yelled. "THE ASTEROIDS!"

It took me all of a few seconds to understand. All I needed to do was destroy the ship or smash it to bits with the asteroids, which were still colossal, none the less.

I reached up and grabbed a big one, and threw it at the ship. It made a huge crater in it, and blew off some parts, but I needed to act faster! I threw another one, and another one. My plan was working, but it was too late. The ship had gotten to close for me to throw the asteroids I needed left. I had to act fast if I was to save the lives of my generals, my crew, and myself.


	8. Chapter 8: Lone Moment

Finally, I used every ounce of energy I had left to grab a hold of the center of the warship. Obisma was screaming, the alarms were blaring, and I felt like I was being tortured and prepared to die. But I used all my force to take every asteroid I could find, and I threw them all at the warship at the same time. The collisions caused the ship to completely explode, leaving New Defense completely unharmed.

I fell to my knees from exhaustion. I had saved all the lives of New Defense. I felt weary, and my vision was blackening. Obisma ran up to me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Meelae! You did it!" he was yelling. "You saved New Defense!"

"I…" and that's all I could get out. I collapsed over and feinted. I had a dream though. While I worried for the sake of my generals, I also wondered where I was and if I was dead. I suddenly appeared in a place made of only black and darkness. I couldn't see anything, just myself.

Suddenly a ghost, whitish figure appeared who looked like a Jedi. He was floating with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. He opened his eyes which were glowing purple. There were no pupils and he stared down at me. But why did he look familiar? That's right. It was Jedi Master Saveeor! That Jedi from my dreams all those months ago!

"Give it back…" he whispered again. "I don't want to get angry with you…"

"I don't want you to have this. I'VE TAKEN IT, AND I'VE DESERVED IT!" I yelled and he walked up to me slowly and chocked me with the force again. This time the chocking hurt my neck like spikes were flying in it. I screamed, and was still able to breathe a little bit.

Saveeor's ghost suddenly got mad and hissed loudly at me.

"INCOLENT FOOL!" he shrieked. "YOU SHALL PAY THE COST OF YOUR LIFE!"

I had a crazy idea of trying to fight a ghost. I knew it was probably impossible, but as I tried, I grabbed the saber, threw it up in the air, caught it, emitted it, and cut at his hand. The fingers on his hand disappeared and faded away as I felt the saber hit something.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" the ghost screamed. He finally calmed down and looked back up at me. "Why won't you give me my saber?" he said calming himself down.

"I told you. It's my saber now. You don't even have the life to take it from me. You don't exist. You're dead in life, you're dead in reality, and most importantly, you're dead to ME." And as I finished saying that, I woke up. My vision was dazed, and my hearing was terribly bad. I could hear high-pitched quick noises, and saw two close by figures and four far away figures. My vision and hearing finally came back and I saw general Obisma and general Kesyar shooting rifles at rebels. They were protecting my body and blasting at the rebels, they finally shot them all off and Kesyar looked at me.

"Hey! He's waking up!" Kesyar yelled.

"Ugh..."I could only moan. "Where am I?" I had a headache that kept me up and awake.

"General. We're in the close hallways near the docking bays. We're about to push the rebels out for good! Just two more hallways, the docking bays, and we win!" Obisma informed.

I got the energy from that report and stood up.

"Sounds good enough for me." I said. I was kind of wobbly, but I was able to stand.

"General Raech should be here soon." Obisma added.

"Good. Let's make him feel guilty. Advance and destroy the remnant now." I said.

"But General-!" Kesyar started.

"Trust me!" I told them. "Here," I grabbed my saber and turned it on. "I'll make the first move." And I walked forward. The generals followed close behind. We made our way to the next hallway, which was clear, and we got to the docking bays. The hangar was completely filled wall to wall with rebels and empire shooting and blasting at each other.

"What are we going to do!?" Obisma yelled over the noise.

"Separating the good troops from the bad ones!" I yelled. I used the force and closed all of the doors. I told Obisma to make an announcement to have all empire evacuate the docking bays through the only door open, which was ours. He tapped into the announcer box and gave the announcement. Most all the troops got out, and only a few stayed. They were eventually outnumbered by all of the rebels. Which not a single one left the docking bays. I stood in the doorway and looked at the attacking rebels.

"NOW WHAT?" Obisma yelled again.

I looked up and I grabbed the roof of the hangar. I closed my fists tight and yanked down at the ground. One of the roof layers completely fell on the entire hangar. There was a huge clang of metals clashing on the floors. A few minutes afterwards, I didn't hear a single person.

"That's it!" Kesyar said. "We did it! We beat the rebels! New Defense is unstoppable!" he was cheering.

We all walked back to the front deck. Troops were cleaning up debris from all over the ship. Most of them were on the front deck, where we saw Raech preparing to start a hologram meeting. He turned around and saw us when we walked in.

"Ah, there you are." Raech said. "I didn't want to give a report myself."

He pushed the button and the Emperor's hologram showed up.

"General Raech. I was beginning to wonder if you and your men were still alive after never reporting for all this time." He said slowly.

"I'm sorry, my lord" Raech bowed and said. "The rebels had attacked our base. General Meelae came just in time to beat them."

The Emperor looked up in my direction. He looked pleased to see me.

"And General Meelae! Good to see you came back here safely. So you destroyed the rebel resistance?" he said happily.

"Yes, my lord." I responded. "My new powers have already shown themselves handy."

"Good to hear, general." He said. "Is that all you have to report then?"

"That is all, my lord." Raech said.

"Good," he said. "By the way, the Empire is having a meeting later on the planet Mustafar. We need one more man for security. I might as well pick one of you while I'm talking to you...General Obisma. You shall do fine. Report to Mustafar near the equator for duty. That is all." And the transmission ended.

"So I have security duty on Mustafar for a meeting?" Obisma asked. "Cool! I'll head over there and see what I can do. I'll be back. Good to see you again Meelae." And with that, he walked out of the room to his ship.

"So…" Raech began. "We had a pretty hard attack, wouldn't you say, general?"

"I would." I responded. "So many weird things are going on…they feel to me like a pattern…like all of this is just the beginning. Don't these threats seem to be getting more and more extreme?"

"Don't be ridiculous, general. Every time we go into battle, we end up winning in the end." Raech said sternly.

"No," Kesyar said. "I've noticed it too…when would you say this pattern started, general?"

"I'd say it went like this," I began. "We had small attacks months ago. We had that riot from the separatists, we had the explosion of the city hall, and we had the assault on Monarch II. Those were minor. Then we had attacking the Jedi Temple and killing several Jedi. Then we had destroying Jedi controlled planets, destroying Separatist blockades, and now we had a warship takeover with all of us almost being killed by a colliding warship! There's a small increase in the dangers there, general!" I finished my rant.

"Alright," Raech said. "I can see your point. But do you feel like it's getting harder? Do you think at one point that there's going to be an attack you won't be able to win against? A mission you can't succeed? An order you can't fill out?!" Now he was getting mad.

"No…" was all I said. "I feel as if I can succeed every mission I'm given."

"Then why does it matter to you how 'hard' something is!?" he ranted. "The Empire doesn't whine on how tough something is! We are an elite force that does our job without question, and destroys everyone who stays in our way at galactic domination!"

"I KNOW!" I yelled. I was getting angrier by the minute.

"Then why are you acting like this is your first day on the job!? START THINKING ON WHAT WERE ACTUALLY DOING OUT HERE!" Raech screamed.

I lost it. I pushed him back and he hit the windows, cracking them. I picked him up and tossed him to the ceiling. Then after he fell from there, I threw him to the wall and he crashed into a computer terminal. He was trying to shake it off when I walked up to him.

"I can do this job better than any of you could dream of now." I said. "You haven't been doing the jobs I'VE had to do! I have to kill Jedi as my regular tactic! I didn't get through three months of Jedi training so I could come back to get screamed at by someone who can't back up his own words!"

Then I heard a loud blaster noise and my right foot was in pain. I screamed and grabbed it. With all of that happening, I fell over from being unbalanced. I clutched my foot before opening my eyes enough to see Raech holding his blaster and aiming it where my foot was.

"I don't want to hear your excuses, general." He said, his gun still smoking from the shot. "Take a rest. Once you wake up, maybe you'll be calm enough to come back."

"I don't take orders from-." I started before Raech cocked his gun ready for another shot. I stormed off to my quarters to take a rest. If I just slept, I would get better, and my foot would stop hurting. I'm sure it didn't need too much medical attention. I opened my door and laid down to rest. I quickly fell asleep.

I had a dream. I was in a room of the Jedi Temple that overlooked a huge view of Coruscant, while the sun was ready to set. The room was open, so some of the pieces of the walls were gone, and there was no ceiling. I heard footsteps behind me, so I quickly turned around. It was Saveeor. Accept he looked human. He wasn't a ghost.

"Master," he said and looked at me. "The clones are making their way in. Nothing's stopping them."

I began to wonder why he was addressing me "master" and what he was talking about. Then suddenly, a human with dark skin and horns out of the sides of his head appeared next to me and answered him.

"There is only one option then, my apprentice." The man said. "We will make our final attack. We have to destroy the clone warships and stations. We'll start in the outer rim. Let's get moving."

"Yes, Master." Saveeor answered. They walked out of the room together.

That must have been some kind of vision from the past. I was in the Jedi Temple in one of its rooms during Order 66. This must have been what Saveeor was doing….and what his master was doing as well. A few moments later, I saw a ship fly away. That must have been them.

"So this is it then, Master Jedi?" I said as if Saveeor was listening. "These were your final hours?" I turned and walked away out of the room. As soon as I stepped out, my vision faded to a white light and I woke up. I was looking up at the lights and sat up in my bed.

I began to walk out of the room before I looked at my clock to tell me I had been asleep for several hours. I needed it. Maybe I'll have another vision next time I sleep. I walked to the door and stepped out. I noticed the yellow light on my door panel was blinking, and I stepped back inside. I pushed it and the computer voice came on.

"One new message:" the computer said before changing to Raech's voice. "General Meelae. You are requested to the front deck as soon as possible." And the message was over. I walked out and headed for the front deck.

When I arrived, General Raech and General Kesyar were already standing there having a conversation. They both looked at me as I walked in. I approached them to see what they needed.

"You called, General?" I said.

"Good Morning, Meelae," Raech said to me. "You and Kesyar are being sent to "The Watchtower" to get more troops for the station."

The Watchtower was another facility like Monarch II. It was in charge of industrial construction and troop garrisons. It was also a secret training facility for special op. troops. The attack from the rebels must have been excruciating to have to fetch more troopers.

"We'll leave right away general," I told him. "And…General…about what I said-."

"It's in the past General," he said. "The Empire cares about the future. We-."

"I know what we do, general." I jokingly laughed. "I read the pamphlet."

I signaled for Kesyar to follow me and we headed to the hangar bays to take a ship to The Watchtower.

I looked around the hangar. It was busier than when Obisma was here. Troopers were frantically running around, carrying parts and running back for more. While engineers were rushing through, looking for the connections in the designs their General had laid out for them. I guess Obisma does more in directing than we thought.

Kesyar and I made our way to a transport vehicle, got inside, and took off. We didn't bother the other troops, as they were busy as they could get. I was able to set the coordinates for the Watchtower and we sat back to let autopilot take over.

"So what exactly are we doing?" Kesyar asked. "Where are we headed once we get past the gates?"

I pulled open a holographic schematic of the base. I pointed out the path we were taking.

"Well once we get past the gates, we'll head to the command center here, get permission from the commander and head underground to the training facilities. Once there, we will take our troops, and head back the way we came."

"What's that?" the rookie asked pointing at a room that was far off underground from the training facility.

"That would be a secret location where we sometimes train Shadowtroopers They are like Stormtroopers accept they can blend into their environment. They have black armor instead of white."

"Why don't we just make Shadowtroopers instead of Stormtroopers?" Kesyar asked.

"The funding to make Shadowtroopers is expensive, and we haven't been given permission from the Emperor to replace our Stormtroopers."

"Ah," Kesyar said. "I see. So we're headed right there?"

"No, right HERE." I pointed at the real location of the training room.

"I thought you pointed HERE." Kesyar said.

I started to laugh as we flew along. Kesyar eventually started to laugh as well. I never had moments like this with Kesyar anymore. It seems that everyday seems to be harder and darker. Finally we had a moment to ourselves to laugh again.

We flew in to the Watchtower and landed on the platform. We stepped out and I had a bad feeling. I stopped for a moment and Kesyar looked back.

"General? Something wrong?" Kesyar asked.

"I sense something." I told him. "I don't know what…but…"

And when that sentence was finished, there was an explosion inside the base. We saw it from the outside gate. Soon, all the troopers on the surface level evacuated and crowded around the front gate. As the door opened to let more troops out, Kesyar and I saw a green gas that filled the inside.

I was able to spot the commander in all of this madness. He wasn't to hard to find. Beyond all the white uniforms stood only a few people. The commander was decked in awards, but not too many. A few trophies from earlier days I'm sure.

"There's the commander." I pointed him out to Kesyar. And we were on our way through the crows to talk to him.

The crowd was frantic. Troops were asking one another what went wrong, while others could go into full detail of the explosion. The pandemonium went out of control. The commander sat still. Looking into the crowd with his expression of high authority. Even when he was approached by us, who had a higher class and command, he had that look on his face.

"Ah, the Defense Generals." He spotted us and said.

"Commander," I said. "You're looking well."

"Yes. I'm sure." He responded.

The commander of the Watchtower felt like he was commander of all the Empire. He treated everyone he met like filth. But he managed to get past ranking of higher officials, because he knew he would never get a higher ranking being a slave owner to the Empire. He was an old man, long face, not much hair, and an attitude. We still treated him as we should.

"We came to get the extra troops we informed you about." I told him.

"Yes, and I would love to go get them for you," he started. "But as you can see, the base is shut closed. There was an explosion of a rare gas tank in the industrial storage. We have no idea what effects it has on our troopers, and we don't want to risk any chances. So you'll have to come back later."

"Oh, no commander," I sat down near him. "Why ever would I do that? We have all the time to wait."

He stared down at me with a dark look of arrogance as I played against his game.

"Your presence tries at my patience, general," he said.

"Don't worry commander," I said back. "It doesn't bother me."

He glared and turned away. Kesyar sat down next to me and asked what we were going to do. I told him we were to wait out and see what we had in store.

It was four minutes into waiting that we all heard a terrible shrieking noise coming from inside the base. It was a shriek that sounded like a woman, and a ferocious creature put together to make a teeth grinding scream.

"So what exactly do you keep in there, commander?" I asked after the scream ended.

"I assure you that wasn't anything I signed for." The commander said.

"Right then." I stood up and began to walk to the gate. Kesyar soon followed behind me to catch up.

"Where are you going, general?" he asked frantically.

"We're going to go inside. Grab your gas mask." I told him and reached for my mask on my belt.

We both grabbed our masks and put them on. We were headed inside to go investigate the screaming. The gate soldiers told us they would let us in when we were ready, since we had the correct protection. We heard the scream from inside again and began to wonder what we had in store for ourselves.


End file.
